Unreality
by Dr Namgge
Summary: After another attack by Dr Eggman, Sonic seems to be the only the one to notice how the world is changing, repeatedly. Convinced that reality has been altered, Sonic sets out on a mission to save the world, stopping at nothing to reset the way things should be. But with the world constantly changing, can he be sure he knows what's right? After all, it's possible he's wrong, right?
1. Night Fight

_For as long as I can remember I've loved Dawn, ever since we were little kids playing in the sandbox I knew there was something special about her, but it was only recently, when she was fighting Eggman's latest machine that I realised I loved her. We got together shortly after Eggman's scheme had been stopped. It was a couple of months ago, however, that things started to get weird. I couldn't figure out why, but I felt like something was wrong._

"No Amy, stay away from me," Sonic screamed as he ran. The pink hedgehog kept chasing him. Despite Sonic being the fastest thing alive, the hammer wielding hedgehog kept up with him, chasing him around the city.

"You're going to change your mind one day Sonic," the pink hedgehog giggled, "You can't say no to Amy forever."

"Oh yes I can," Sonic said, before putting on an extra burst of speed. He jumped up, latching onto a flag pole. Spinning around it, he used the momentum to power himself up the side of the building. He looked down to see Amy enter the building he was running up the side of. As he'd guessed Amy would try to meet him on the roof. Sonic rolled along the roof, and looked around. Sure enough there was an entrance to the rooftop. Sonic grinned, and leapt off the roof, landing on the roof of the building across the street. Jumping from building to building, Sonic leapt off the edge of the fifth building and rolled down the side of it.

Sonic got to his feet in an alley. He looked around him, "B-but t-that's impossible!" he panicked, as a familiar hammer clutching hedgehog smiled at him.

Amy grabbed his arm, "Now there's no way you can get out of marrying me Sonic," she grinned, grabbing him by the arm. Amy led the pair to a chapel, Sonic yelling all the way.

Sonic bolted upright, cold sweat running down his body. He looked around himself, it was dark, and everything looked a little fuzzy, and grey tinted as Sonic's eyes glanced around his room. Though he couldn't see any details, Sonic was sure he was in his own room. Slowly he laid back down, calming himself over the nightmare he just had. Sonic starred at his ceiling for a moment, wondering quite what it meant.

He glanced at the clock, it was three seventy two in the morning, still another six hours before sunrise. Sonic decided it'd probably be for the best if he went back to sleep, the next thirty two hours would be the longest of his life. He slid open his bedside cabinet draw, the ring was still there, still in it's pink presentation box. He looked carefully at it, it looked was a hammer engraved on the box.

This puzzled Sonic, hadn't the girl in his dream been carrying a hammer? Sonic wondered if his dream was trying to tell him something. He thought carefully, before shaking his head, he knew what he was going to do. As Tails had said, dreams didn't always mean the literal message, and sometimes they meant the literal opposite.

Sonic laid down and looked to his right. Sure enough, there was Dawn sleeping peacefully. Sonic kissed the green hedgehog's forehead, her face smiled as he did, but she didn't wake from her slumber, merely putting her arm around him. Sonic thought back to his dream, throughout it he was trying to avoid marrying someone, but it wasn't Dawn. Maybe Sonic's mind was trying to tell him it'd be wrong not to marry Dawn.

Sonic racked his brain further, trying to remember if he knew an Amy. After a while Sonic shook his head, the name Amy didn't hold any significance to him.

"Maybe I'm over thinking this dream," Sonic said quietly. Dawn rolled over slightly, wrapping her arm further around the blue hedgehog's stomach. Sonic smiled as she did, and ran his hand along her spines. Like most anthro hedgehogs, hers were pretty blunt, with only the tips offering any form of point, and even that was dulled. Sonic knew however that his own spines were different. If he wanted them to be, Sonic was capable of turning them razor sharp. Dawn had told him on several occasions that this was a type of magic, but Sonic didn't want to know, leaving that kind of thing to her. All Sonic did know was this ability, and his speed made his body into a powerful weapon.

Of course Sonic knew that in a fight Dawn would win. Her magic was an altogether more impressive way of fighting, and was the reason he was merely the sidekick in the fight. He wasn't useless, far from it, on countless occasions Sonic had more than shown his worth, but Sonic preferred to let Dawn lead.

Sonic closed his eyes and slowly drifted back to sleep, his body looking towards Dawn's, and Sonic's arm laid over Dawn's body.

There was a loud crash as the window of Sonic's room shattered. Sonic instantly woke up and leapt out of the bed. The light's in the room flickered to life as Dawn hit the switch above her bed. Six Badniks looked back at them, all of them carrying some type of gun. Both Sonic and Dawn tensed up. Sonic instinctively curled into a ball, and ripped through two of the machines, while Dawn cast a spell that destroyed another one. With a kick Sonic knocked the forth into the line of fire aimed at Dawn, destroying the robot.

"Thanks Sonic," Dawn blushed.

"Don't mention it," Sonic smiled. Sonic suddenly felt weightless, and lifted into the air, as he saw a missile sail underneath him.

"Just returning the favour," Dawn smiled.

Sonic jumped off of Dawn's levitation cloud, and landed square atop the fifth Badnik. Dawn took a moment, and caused the last one to self destruct with another spell. The pair of them sat down afterwards.

"Sorry I couldn't be more help," Dawn said, "I'm just not used to trying to cast spells at four seventy in the morning."

"That's probably why we were attacked now, to catch us off guard," Sonic said.

"Don't make me laugh," a familiar voice said from a speaker in the rubble. Sonic and Dawn bother recognised it as that of doctor Eggman, "This wasn't a serious attack. I just thought I'd remind you that I'm still around. You may have beaten me last time, but I will triumph, and you will bow before the might of the Eggman Empire." With that there was a small explosion within the rubble, destroying the speaker.

"We'd best get Tails around here in the morning to look at this," Dawn said to Sonic. Sonic nodded, wondering how long it'd be before he and Dawn fought with Eggman again.


	2. Tails' Tales

_Tails has always been there when we needed him, and his mechanical expertise, and piloting skills have served me and Dawn well on many occasions. What can I say, every hero and his sidekick still needs a guy who sits in their base relaying information, or hacking into computers, especially when you're fighting against someone like Eggman. I've often asked Tails if he's ever wanted to do some proper combat, but he just shrugs and dismisses the idea. Closest he gets to combat is flying us into any of Eggman's flying battleships._

Tails looked amongst the pieces of machinery that lay strewn in Sonic and Dawn's bedroom. Pieces of mangled robot were scattered all over, but it didn't take Tails all that long to look through it.

"There's nothing significant here I'm afraid," the fox half smiled, aware they were hoping for some sort of lead, "these look like Eggman's standard robots, and bar the two way radio inside this one here," he said, kicking one of the robot's lightly, "there's really nothing unusual."

"So Eggman really had no ulterior motive then?" Dawn asked, scratching her chin with her paw.

"If he did, it wasn't here, that I can tell for certain," Tails took his glasses off, and rubbed his temples slightly.

"This could've been a distraction," Sonic chirped in. Sonic was having a hard time following this conversation. Though he couldn't place it, Sonic was sure there was something wrong about Tails' appearance. Sonic shook his head slightly, everything was fine. Tails was still an adult orange and white fox with glasses; who was a good six inches taller than Sonic. This was normal. Tails, like many male anthro's was more or less naked bar some shoes, and gloves, and currently a beige tool belt.

"We'd better check if anything else has happened then," Dawn said, interrupting Sonic's train of thought, "If this was a distraction, then who knows what might've happened."

"I'd suggest checking in with Knuckles on Angel Island. Something might've happened with the Sol Emeralds," Tails said.

"Already on it," Dawn said, with a hint of determination in her voice. Dawn left the room and Sonic knew she'd be some time. He looked around amongst the wreckage for a few seconds.

"You still gonna ask her to marry you tonight then?" Tails asked, catching Sonic completely by surprise.

"I err, hey! Keep your voice down will you. I've kept this secret for months," the hedgehog said trying to keep himself quiet at the same time, "I hope so."

"Worried this is going to ruin your plans then?" the fox asked, looking at the hedgehog.

"Slightly if I'm honest," Sonic paused for a moment, "Tails, what do you know about dreams? Only I had this really odd one last night, I was being chased by this pink hedgehog; I remember her name was Amy. She was chasing me, and I was running from her. However she caught me, and forced me into a wedding chapel, against my will. What do you think it means?"

"Well it could mean anything," the fox answered, adjusting his glasses slightly, "But given the circumstances it's probably just nerves."

"You really think its nerves?"

"Hey, I know how it is. Marriage is a life changing event," Tails replied, "Was in the same spot myself seven years ago."

This fact surprised the hedgehog, "Seven years? Has it really been that long you've been married?"

"Well, I was twenty when I asked, and I'm twenty seven now." Tails began to trail off slightly.

Sonic knew what Tails was thinking, "Listen, I'm sure she's still alive. For all you know Eggman's not found her yet," the hedgehog said, trying to cheer up the fox.

"Yeah…" the fox answered slowly.

"You've been like a big brother to me over the years, the least I can do to pay you back for everything is find her," Sonic said, trying to reassure Tails. The fox didn't say anything, just looking out the window at the street below. Sonic saw a large military vehicle roam past, but dismissed it. He must've seen about two a day; usually just on practice drives, or new recruit training.

"Hey Tails," Sonic said trying to change the subject, and cheer the fox up, "Why do they call you Tails anyway? You only have one tail, not two," Sonic froze as he said that, a shudder running down his spine. Mentally Sonic suddenly pictured the fox sat opposite him with a second tail. The fox Sonic was picturing was much shorter than Tails was now by at least a foot, and looked about eight years old. Sonic couldn't place why, but he felt like Tails was more suited to this look than the adult fox sat in front of him.

A gloved paw waved in front of Sonic's eyes, snapping him out of his daydream, "Earth to Sonic, come in Sonic," Tails said.

"Huh, whu?" the blue hedgehog muttered, confused.

"You zoned out there for a good two minutes,"

"Oh, sorry," Sonic mumbled, "Just got sidetracked. You were saying?"

"As I said; I called myself Tails as a nickname, but it sort of stuck, and is used more now than the name my parents gave me."

"You don't like being called Miles?" Sonic grinned.

"Miles isn't my name though," Tails said, "Why would you think it was?"

"I don't know, I just thought that…" Sonic trailed off, unsure why he said Miles, or why he was convinced Tails' surname was Prower.

"You sure you're okay Sonic?" Tails asked, even more concerned.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit…"

"Guys, you're not going to believe this!" Dawn yelled as she ran into the room.

"What is it?" both Sonic and Tails chorused together.

"Knuckles says that Eggman managed to get hold of one of the Sol Emeralds. Even worse is that rather than take it like normal, he just destroyed it." Dawn said, still stunned by the news.

"But how?" Tails asked, "Those things are stronger than Diamonds."

"I don't know," Dawn answered, "But I know if one of them is destroyed then the other six are at risk."

"Even worse than that," Sonic finished, "Who knows what effect freeing all the energy from the Sol emeralds will have on the world. If Eggman breaks the other six there's no telling what might happen."


	3. Desperate Separation

_Eggman has been our nemesis for years. He always has a new device ready, and a new plan to try and take over the world. Dawn and I have always succeeded in beating him, often by Dawn harnessing the powers contained within the Sol Emeralds. It made sense then for Eggman to try to reduce that power, but what none of us could figure out was why he destroyed just one of the emeralds. After all Dawn__'__s powers were enhanced by each one, so removing just one wouldn__'__t be as effective as removing all seven._

"I don't think it was intentional," Knuckles said, scratching her chin, "Eggman attacked the island in the middle of the night. It was just him and a few robots. Didn't seem like a serious attack really. Anyway in the course of my defence of the emeralds," the Echidna said, kicking a bolt away with her orange sneakers, "Eggman's machines knocked one of the Sol Emeralds into the air. It landed in Eggman's Eggmobile and he just sort of, I 'unno, spaced out I guess. I was too busy dealing with his machines."

"And that's when he broke the emerald?" Dawn interrupted, the wind blowing along her green spikes

"I guess so," the pink Echidna shrugged, "he yelled something, though I didn't hear what. Next thing I know there's a loud explosion, and a bright light as the emerald exploded. Eggman looked towards the rest. He had a look that said he was going to do the same with them. Unfortunately for him I managed to make his Eggmobile malfunction. He fled before he could destroy the rest," Knuckles smirked triumphantly.

"But that doesn't mean he won't be back." Sonic said.

Dawn nodded in agreement. Knuckles asked for her opinion on what to do and Dawn had to think for a moment. Sonic thought to, though not about the same problem. Sonic initially wondered why Dawn was taking her time to come up with a plan until he himself realised this wasn't one of Eggman's ordinary schemes.

"I think it might be wise to split the Sol emeralds up," Knuckles eventually said, her foot slowly tapping in a way which seemed familiar to Sonic. "I'll take two and hide them. Dawn, you take two and hide them. Same for you Sonic; whatever you do don't let anyone, not even the rest of us, know where they're hidden. That way, at least, it'll be harder for Eggman to get hold of them."

Dawn nodded, "Sounds like a good idea. I know where to hide each of them as well."

Before Sonic could object Dawn had disappeared into thin air. Sonic was going to say something about the possibility of Dawn needing all the emeralds, but he dismissed it and watched Knuckles take her two emeralds. He disappeared into the underground tunnels of Angel Island. Sonic picked up his two, and shivered violently.

"It's a lie," a voice whispered to Sonic repeatedly. Sonic watched as a bunch of images suddenly flashed before his eyes. Images of people he had never met, yet he knew.

"It's all a lie," the voice continued. There was a young fox with two tails, a black hedgehog, a large water monster, and several images of giant space stations.

"None of this is real," the voice echoed again. The final imaged lingered slightly longer in front of Sonic. It was a pink hedgehog in a red dress carrying a yellow hammer. Sonic knew that he knew that image; it was Amy, the hedgehog that had been chasing him for all these years.

Sonic shook his head as he came to "All these years?" he said quietly to himself as he got off the floor, "That doesn't make sense." Sonic shook his head once again, confused by what had just happened. "How could I forget someone who I've apparently seen for so long?"

"Maybe you're getting forgetful Sonic," beckoned Eggman coldly.

"What do you want?" Sonic said

"To finish the job, naturally," Eggman said with glee, "And look you've already got two of the emeralds. Why not hand them over and maybe I'll let you live until all the Sol Emeralds are destroyed."

Without thinking Sonic threw the emeralds in opposite directions. He saw Eggman dash for one of them and ran towards where the doctor's Eggmobile was heading. Sonic knew he'd beat Eggman there, and grabbed it again, flinging it behind Eggman and jumping at his Eggmobile, bouncing off of, and over it towards the green Sol emerald.

Eggman turned his Eggmobile around, and saw his chance; dashing away he scooped up the purple emerald Sonic had flung earlier. Sonic grabbed the green one, and rolled along the ground. Standing upright he heard Eggman laugh, and watched as the obese human clutched a small device that was orbiting around his machine.

"I hope you'll tell Dawn about my R.O.S.C. machine," Eggman laughed gleefully. With that the machine glowed slightly, before there was a bright light which shook Angel Island. Sonic watched as he saw the outline of a Sol emerald disintegrate into nothing.

Sonic used this chance to fling the Emerald as far as he could. He saw it roll off the edge of Angel Island. Sonic assumed that for now at least Eggman wouldn't get his hands on it.

"You know as well as I do why I'm doing this Sonic," Eggman said, just as Sonic was about to ask him that very question, "I know you know it for yourself by now." With that Eggman flew off. Sonic was even more confused by his direction as Eggman hadn't made an attempt for where the green emerald had landed. Sonic himself hadn't seen where it had gone once it went off Angel Island. They where hovering over the coast, and though Sonic could guess it would've landed on dry land, with the wind today there was no guarantee that that would indeed be the case.

Two things puzzled Sonic; the first was that Eggman had made his approach on Angel Island alone, as if he knew Knuckles wouldn't be there. The other thing that was puzzling him was that stood in front of him now was a total stranger who Sonic had never actually seen before yet also instantly recognised as Amy Rose, even though the pink spines on her head were arranged differently, and she was carrying a crossbow, despite both the dream and the vision showing a yellow hammer.

"Come on Sonic," yelled Amy, "We have to get off the Floating Island and tell the others what's happened. Eggman's gotta be stopped!"

Sonic didn't know how to answer this, He would swear on Dawn's life tat he had no idea who this girl was, or why she seemed so determined to stop Eggman. Even more puzzling was how neither he nor Eggman had noticed her, despite her clearly having been stood in the middle of where the two of them had talked.

"Wake up Sonic," Amy said, waving her hand across his face, "Dawn was right saying you'd been acting odd recently."

"H-how do you know Dawn?" Sonic asked nervously.

"Don't be daft you," Amy said laughing, "How could I not know the hero of Earth, Why if it weren't for her, you and me probably wouldn't be getting married."


	4. Just Trust

-1_I__'__m not sure why I recognised Amy, even though I__'__d never seen here in front of my actual eyes before. The fact that she didn__'__t look like the Amy I__'__d dreamt up didn__'__t help lessen the confusion. Now I dunno about anyone else, but I__'__d guess that my initial reaction to this news was one most people would go for given the circumstances._

"Get away from me you crazy maniac!" Sonic screamed, as he ran away from the pink hedgehog. Running as fast as he could, Sonic made it to the other end of the island before he realised his only exit laid with the remote controlled Bi-Plane of his. With a flick of the wrist, Sonic opened up a small Transceiver to Tails.

"What is it Sonic?" Tails answered in a lacklustre tone.

"I need the Twister plane here now," Sonic said clearly panicked.

"Locking onto your location; won't be a moment. What's going on?"

"This crazy pink hedgehog, had a crossbow, claimed she was marrying me, I had to get away!"

"You're kidding me?" Tails dryly sighed, "You want me to bring the plane to you so you can escape from your fiancé? After everything you said earlier when we had arrived at Dawn's apartment?"

"My fiancé? Dude, Dawn is my fiancé," Sonic said, stunned by the accusations Tails was making.

"Yeah, and I've got two tails."

Sonic stopped dead in his tracks. Something ran through his mind. Part of him wanted to answer 'but you do have two tails', despite Sonic himself knowing that not to be true. Sonic shook his head for a moment, "Could you bring the Twister here anyway? I need to get off Angel Island," he eventually answered.

Sonic allowed the crossbow wielding hedgehog to accompany him off Angel Island, mostly because he knew that if he didn't, Knuckles would sever the girls head from her spine. He sat in the back of the plane, his sneakers tapping against the edge of it.

"Why did you run?" Amy asked Sonic. Sonic had been asked this question several times, and each time he didn't know what to say. On one hand this anthro could be completely insane, but then why would Tails insist that she was Sonic's fiancée? Sonic wondered if he had been hit by something by Eggman, or if this was all part of Eggman's scheme. He tensed up slightly, watching the other hedgehog carefully.

"What's gotten into you today, Sonic?" Amy asked again, a look of concern on her face.

Sonic decided for now he'd humour her, "Sorry, I must've taken a blow to the head when dealing with Eggman. I've got a thumping headache right now to be honest Amy," he lied, "and my visions still a little bit blurry."

"Perhaps you should rest for a while then," Amy suggested calmly. Sonic shook his head; he didn't want to leave himself wide open for an attack.

Amy decided to change the subject, "Why do you suppose Eggman wants to destroy the Sol Emeralds?"

"I really don't know," Sonic mumbled, watching the plane land on the ground. With an immediate jump he left the vehicle. Amy followed him out of it, still asking Sonic either didn't want to answer, or honestly had no clue how to answer.

The puff of green smoke next to Sonic made him jump slightly, as it always had, but he recognised it to be Dawn's entrance. The wind ruffled his spines slightly, and Amy's even more. Sonic figured she wouldn't have as much luck as him in a spin attack.

"How'd it go?" Sonic asked Dawn, trying his best to forget Amy was even there.

"Nobody would ever find where I hid my two," Dawn answered smugly, "How'd it go with you two?"

Sonic paused for a second, allowing Amy to interrupt "I managed to hide mine, just I might add," she said, trying to soften the blow of what she would say next, "But Eggman got hold of Sonic's before he got off Angel Island. It's been destroyed."

"It wasn't like that at all!" Sonic yelled, "Eggman appeared after you and Knuckles went, and before I could hide either of the _two_ emeralds you gave me, Eggma-"

"Two emeralds?" Dawn said confused, "I only gave you one, Sonic."

Amy nodded as Dawn said that, "She's right. We each got one, Dawn took two, and Knuckles took two. You must've taken a severe bump on the head fighting Eggman."

Sonic couldn't answer. He knew deep down that he was right, and that was not how it happened, and he could distinctly remember being given both emeralds, and Eggman attacking. Yet he had no way to explain this, and the more he thought about it, the more it gave him a proper headache.

"I think you need some rest Sonic. Amy, I know you'll take good care of him," Dawn said calmly, "Meanwhile I'll…"

"How do you know her name?" Sonic asked.

"What? What on Earth are you talking about?" Dawn said in disbelief.

"How do you know who she is when she's never said her name?" Sonic asked again, now convinced there was foul play at work.

"Don't be stupid Sonic," Dawn said, agitated by this, "How could I not know Amy. She's your fiancée, and I was the one who introduced you to her."

"You're my fiancée Dawn!" Sonic yelled loudly.

Amy starred in disbelief, "What is going on here Sonic? You've got five seconds to explain yourself."

Sonic ignored the increasingly angry pink hedgehog, and looked into Dawn's eyes for a glint of truth. He knew he could tell if she was lying, "Alright then 'Dawn'," Sonic said, still looking at Dawn, "Tell me something, what was the toy I lost when I was seven? If you are who you say you are you'd know this, and I know that only you could possibly know this."

"What on Earth does that have to do with anything Sonic?" Amy yelled angrily. Both Sonic and Dawn ignored her for now. Sonic watched Dawn's eyes carefully.

"It was a stuffed cuddly hedgehog, of Silver from the then popular TV show 'The Adventures of Silver the Hedgehog', but I don't…" Dawn trailed of mid sentence, as she saw Sonic's eyes change from that of anger and suspicion, to that of confusion and worry.

Amy crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently, "Does anyone care to explain what's going on?"

Nobody answered the impatient hedgehog for a while. Dawn looked at Sonic, then at Amy with a look of concern on her face. Sonic stood there, rather shocked by what had just happened and still very confused. Eventually Dawn suggested Sonic go with Amy to get some rest. Sonic reluctantly nodded, still sceptical about Amy, but the throbbing aches and pains his body was giving him were more persuasive than anything in his mind telling him not to.

Amy took Sonic by the shoulder and helped the hedgehog through the streets home. Once or twice Sonic would buckle slightly, confirming to his mind that he was clearly in a worse state than he'd initially believed. It was possible Eggman had done something to him, and Dawn suggested Sonic be looked over by a doctor.

Sonic was helped into bed by Amy. He was asleep the second his head hit the pillow and he didn't wake up for a good fifteen hours. He didn't even register the fact that he'd fallen asleep still in his sneakers. Likewise, if Sonic wasn't going to register that his shoes were still on, then it was very unlikely that Sonic would've noticed the photo on his bedside cabinet of him kissing his fiancée Dawn.


	5. Mocking Doctor

_I'm never good at seeing doctors. If I'm honest, I'd rather suffer slightly, than have some random stranger poke and prod at me with cold hands, and colder implements. However, when you're unable to move your leg without wincing, and can't even feel your toes enough to move them, it's time to admit defeat and accept you need help from a professional.  
_  
"I don't usually make house calls at this hour y'know," Sonic heard the doctor mutter as Amy let him in the door, "But considering who the patient is I'll let it slide this time," he said, before adding quietly, "I just hope you're insurance covers this."

A green duck wearing a white lab coat entered the room, waddling like all ducks would. Something about the duck made Sonic apprehensive, and Sonic tensed up, only to scream in agony as his foot reminded him he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"I assume you're the patient?" the duck quacked.

"No, really?" Sonic answered sarcastically, "You really are a terrific doctor y'know."

The duck lent its gloved paw onto Sonic's foot, reminding Sonic he was in no position to be making jokes. Sonic's reply was directed at Amy, ordering her to leave. Amy protested this, but Sonic insisted.

"If the patient doesn't want you here Amy," the duck said calmly, "Then I'll have to ask you to leave. If that's too much trouble then you can always take Sonic to the emergency room where chances are you'll be told the same thing."

Amy relented, "Of course doctor Pin," she sighed, before leaving the room closing the door behind her.

"Never did like having people watch me work," Pin said quietly.

Sonic smirked, "Glad to be rid of her myself," he said, wincing again as the doctor applied his paw to the ankle.

"I thought you and her were to be married though?" Pin questioned.

"I don't know," Sonic said, hesitating. Dr. Pin looked up at his face confused, and stopped doing what he was doing. Sonic thought for a moment, before realising the doctor couldn't possibly say anything to anyone.

"I just…" Sonic paused, "Doctor, have you ever felt like everything around you is wrong? I mean it's real, but it doesn't seem to be how life should be?"

"You want a better life?" Pin asked.

"No, that's not it," Sonic answered, shaking his head, "it's just one minute, I was engaged to Dawn, and the next I'm engaged to Amy, a girl who I've only known to have existed for 22 hours," Sonic paused again, "That doesn't make sense does it?"

"No, do continue," Pin said. Sonic noticed how concerned the duck suddenly looked listening to this. During this story Pin had been slowly bandaging Sonic's ankle and foot. Sonic suddenly felt a sharp pain, and swung his arms out as he screamed. He laid his head back on something glass. Fortunately for the hedgehog it hadn't broken. Sonic picked it up and examined it.

"Hey wait a second…" Sonic said, causing Pin to look at him again.

"What is it?" Pin asked, wondering if Sonic wanted him to stop.

"Amy must be lying, otherwise why would this picture show me kissing Dawn?"

Pin stopped what he was doing and got up. He looked at Sonic, "We thought you'd never figure it out," he said coldly, "We were sure you'd forget. You had to remember didn't you? We were going to let you live, but if you've figured it out, then we must do everything in our power to stop you." With that Pin reached into his medical bag and pulled out a large knife. The duck leapt onto the bed and stood over the crippled hedgehog. "Say goodbye," he said coldly.

There was a thud, and the look on the ducks face changed from one of menace to one of surprise. His eyes shot wide open, and he fell limp, falling to the floor. Sonic looked to the body of the doctor, and saw a crossbow bolt stick out from his back. He traced his eyes to where the shot had come from. Of all the people Sonic had expected to have shot someone with a crossbow, an Egg-Robo wasn't one of the first options.

"Don't be alarmed Sonic," a familiar voice rang out, "I would've loved to have been there in person, but someone with my stature just cannot make it to you that quickly from my base," The voice of Doctor Eggman rang out, from a speaker embedded within the robot, "I know I'm the last person you'll trust right now, but I know you've be-"

The transmission was cut short by a second crossbow shot, this time fired from a crossbow being held by a pink hedgehog. "You alright Sonic?" she asked.

Sonic didn't answer, he was beyond confused now. Part of him wanted to know what was going on, but he didn't trust Amy, and he didn't trust that the duck had been alone. He certainly didn't trust Eggman, but he still couldn't place why Eggman would save Sonic's life. Sonic carefully considered his options, before leaping out of the window, screaming as he landed on his ankle.

"Sonic, where are you going?" Amy screamed, but it was too late. Even with a broken ankle in a cast, Sonic could still reach speeds that top race car drivers wished they could reach. Sonic of course knew exactly where to go. He was going to go to Dawn. He had the photo of them kissing, maybe he could figure out why hers and Tails' memories were so screwy, and maybe even stop whoever it was that had hired that doctor.

Sonic looked at the picture again. He recognised his blue skin, his green eyes, and his trademark sneakers. He looked at Dawn on the picture and sighed slightly, she looked so happy, and looked as beautiful to him then as he'd always remembered, her green skin complimenting her blue eyes, and her long tail stroking him in the picture. Sonic had to admit he found her to be one beautiful cat.


	6. Pain Explained

_Now when you're running at over two hundred miles an hour, the first thing you tend to think about are things that might suddenly jump in your way. At those sort of speeds it takes some very quick reflexes to stop, and it's often better to keep yourself primed to jump over or roll under any obstacle. This was the first time I'd ever tried running with a cast on my leg, and the constant screaming I did while running probably alerted this fact to much of the public. Not that I can say I saw any of them for too long._

"Owowowowowow" Sonic said, sounding like a pneumatic drill as he ran through the streets of the city. It was about eight in the morning, and thus still dark, but some of the early workers were starting to make there travels meaning Sonic had to jump over a couple of cars as he ran. A green sports car skidded out of the way as it saw the blue hedgehog limping down the street, coming towards it at several times the speed limit. Sonic watched the car regain control, and chuckled, before yelling again; his ankle once again reminding him that running wasn't what it wanted.

Sonic of course had to get out. After what he'd just been through he didn't want to be in the same room as Amy, assuming that's who she really was. Sonic clung tightly to the picture of him and Dawn kissing. He couldn't remember exactly when it was taken, but he knew Dawn. Dawn was not the type of person to just casually kiss someone unless she cared a great deal for them, and from what she'd been saying recently, Sonic and Dawn had never been romantic. Sonic remembered it differently, he loved Dawn, and he knew that more than anything else. The photo proved that it was real, and that something was going on.

Sonic banged on the purple door in front of Dawn's apartment loudly. He had tried simply barging in, but the door was locked, and Sonic didn't want to have to owe Dawn for yet another door. Slowly the door swung open, and a weary looking green cat looked at the bandage hedgehog.

"Sonic," she said confused, "What are you…"

"Look at this," Sonic demanded, "Look at it and tell me everything's alright."

Dawn looked at the blue hedgehog, "Sonic it's eight AM, the sun won't be up for hours. What are you trying to prove?" She said, her eyes struggling to focus or stay open for anything longer than ten seconds.

"Just look at it," Sonic said, thrusting the image into Dawn's face, his paw covering much of the image. "That's us," Sonic continued, "Kissing."

Dawn took the photo frame from the blue hedgehog. She looked at it bewildered, and walked into her apartment to get better light. Tightening her beige dressing gown, she invited Sonic in. Sonic limped in, and collapsed on her leather sofa. It squeaked as he laid there and Sonic was glad to finally get the weight off his ankle. Sonic began explaining to Dawn what had happened earlier that evening, telling her about how Amy had called the doctor, and how Eggman had for some reason saved him.

"I think you'd best stay here Sonic," Dawn said, "it doesn't add up for me either. I mean why would your fiancée try to have you killed? Normally I'd call it a plan of Eggman's but he saved your life."

"What I don't get is why the photo was there," Sonic pointed out, "If the plan was to have me believe I was to marry Amy, then why would a photo of me and you kissing be there?"

"That photo still puzzles me actually Sonic," Dawn said uneasily, "I don't remember ever kissing you."

"But you have, this is what I'm trying to say Dawn. I think someone is trying to mess with our memories," Sonic argued.

Dawn sat there for a moment, thinking about it. To her it didn't make sense at all. Dawn didn't understand what was going on, or why Sonic was the only one who could remember these things. Eventually she said what she didn't want to say, "It's possible it's your memories are being manipulated."

Sonic hadn't considered this option. He was so sure that whatever was doing this would target everyone for maximum confusion that he hadn't even considered what would happen if it was just him who was being manipulated. Sonic came clean with Dawn, and filled her in on everything since that dream he had had the other night. He knew say it all he'd never convince Dawn, but he just couldn't handle having it all in his brain anymore.

Dawn sat there, and listened to Sonic, occasionally re-adjusting her gown, and fidgeting in her chair as he talked. Dawn could never sit still for too long, and by the end she had gotten up and was pacing the room. "So you decided that it would be best to tell me?" she asked sympathetically.

"I just need you to understand Dawn," Sonic said sadly, "I only met Amy yesterday, and I can't trust her. I'm slowly loosing my ability to see Tails for who he is, and keep thinking he's a child. You're the only person in all of this who has remained constant. As it stands you probably don't feel the same, but I lo…"

The sound of a loud explosion interrupted Sonic's speech. Both he and Dawn looked out the window to the source of the explosion. As they half expected there was a robot stood several feet down the street, its weight cracking the kerb. "Eggman!" the pair of them chorused together. Dawn leapt to her feet, with Sonic attempting the same only to scream in pain from his broken ankle.

"Just stay put Sonic," Dawn yelled, as the robot stomped closer to there building, "I'll handle this one."

Sonic relented, knowing he was in no position to argue. His foot injury made him vulnerability, and all he could do was watch as Dawn ran out the front door, and met with the two story machine. Eggman sat in the cockpit laughing, and taunted the cat, as the six legged monstrosity moved closer to her. Sonic saw Dawn tense up and he could only guess what he was going to do. He watched the familiar sight of her chanting, and watched her glow a dim green aura around her. As the robots legs began stomping faster a small flurry of fireballs shot out from her aura and struck the robots grey legs.

Eggman growled as they hit and he retaliated by dropping down his own reign of fire bombs from a pair of missile launchers mounted to the back of the cockpit. Sonic figured that to be the weak point, and wished he could get up to hit it with the spin attack that would cause the machine to begin self destructing. Sure enough Dawn thought the same and Sonic watched lumps of debris that the grey robots fire had created fly through the air and make contact with the missile launcher.

There was a small explosion. Sonic panicked as the orange wall at the back of Dawn's apartment caved in, sending ornaments and trinkets of varying nature flying with rubble. Sonic screamed for help, something which in any other circumstance he wouldn't do, but right now he was a sitting duck. The three green painted Egg-Robos knew this as well, and within moments they had ransacked the place, taking Sonic as a prisoner.

Dawn watched the robot explode in a flurry of metal parts, fire, and smoke. As she'd gotten used to, the cockpit was detachable, and Eggman flew out in his Eggmobile. However Dawn couldn't suss why he was laughing as he left, until she turned round to watch her small apartment explode. She ran for cover as all fifteen stories of her building came down with the force of the explosion. Dirt, and dust covered many of the surrounding buildings, and the explosion forced brickwork and plaster all around. Dawn narrowly avoided being hit by a large terracotta plant pot as rubble and peoples now ruined possessions came raining down. No sooner that it had started than it was over, and through the rubble Dawn saw the survivors crawl out. Many were shook to the core, and there were a fair few close calls, but somehow everyone had survived, but several not without serious injury.

However Sonic never appeared. People began to search for him in the rubble after Dawn told people he had a broken ankle. Desperate to help there hero, total strangers dug through the rubble in the hope of finding something. The cold body of a blue hedgehog however, was not what any of them wanted to find.


	7. Burial Peril

-1_You were a brave warrior through it all, and more than just a sidekick. You were there from the beginning, and I couldn't have done all this without you. I promise I will get revenge on Eggman for this; your death will not be in vein Sonic the Hedgehog._

A week had passed since the body of Sonic had been dug up from the rubble of Dawn's apartment. Without a place to stay, Dawn had ended up living with Tails. Tails didn't mind, he had room for her, and knew she needed him. Amy had also offered her place, but Dawn declined. She didn't tell Amy, but she blamed Sonic's death in part on her. Dawn knew Sonic wasn't what she would've called completely sane when Sonic last met her, but even if he was crazy, it was because of events that had happened in Amy's house that led Sonic to be in Dawn's apartment when it had been destroyed. Dawn also blamed herself. If she had realised what was going on when Eggman had attacked, she might have been able to save Sonic.

It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining, the Flickys were chirping loudly, and there wasn't a cloud in the day. Looking out the window at this, Dawn sighed; usually funerals were held on rainy overcast days to reflect the somberness of the occasion. Today however must've been one of the sunniest days of the year. The cat sat there, and watched as a pair of young squirrels played outside, making the most of the weather.

"Doesn't seem right does it?" Tails asked not expecting an answer from Dawn.

Dawn sat there for a moment, unsure what to say, before mumbling, "No, it's not."

Tails placed his arm around her shoulder. He looked at the cat. She looked back and clung to Tails as he hugged her. For several minutes they stood like this, neither of them knowing what to say. There was a knock on the door, and Tails let Dawn go. It was a driver, and Tails and Dawn slowly followed him to the waiting car. The car joined with the funeral procession, and made a slow drive to the cemetery where Sonic's body was to be buried. Neither of them said anything during the procession.

Dawn had made clear from the start her intentions to keep the funeral low key and everyone had agreed; no press or reporters, and only those who were close. Despite this, there were still many mourners, and Dawn couldn't believe how many people waited outside the graveyard mourning. She wept slightly as she saw everyone look on as one of their heroes was to be buried.

"Dearly beloved," the priest started, in his normal fashion, giving the eulogy given to soldiers killed in battle. He then opened the floor for people to say there words.

Tails was the first to get up, his black suit making him look a stark contrast to the normal male anthro style of just shoes and gloves. "You were like a younger brother to me," he said slowly, "I can't believe you're gone. I'm never going to forget you Sonic." He finished. Tails had made a conscious effort not to say much, he was never good at funerals, and he knew others had more to say.

It had clouded over when Amy had got up, "I love you Sonic," She said through her veil, crying as she spoke, "I won't forget the moment I first met you, I knew then we'd be together for the rest of our lives. I just wish that your life hadn't ended so soon," she cried, and walked away, unable to continue.

"I'm sorry Sonic," Dawn said, "This is all my fault. If I'd only been careful you'd be here now." She looked at Sonic's lifeless body inside the coffin, and felt a drop of rain hit her head. "I want you to have something," she continued. Placing her hand in her pocket she revealed a blue Sol emerald, and placed it into Sonic's cold paws, "I know it's not what you'd want considering, but I trust you with it Sonic."

"Aww, you trust him with it. Brings a tear to my eye," Eggman laughed.

"Show some respect for the dead, you heartless man!" Amy yelled, as everyone turned around to see the familiar sight of Eggman in his Eggmobile. He was flanked by six jetpack wielding Egg-Robo's, two of which carrying small guns, the other four all carrying large missile launchers. Eggman's Eggmobile itself wasn't showing any clear weaponry, though everyone suspected that there was some kind of weapon inside the small black and grey vehicle.

"Oh I have respect alright," Eggman answered, "He was a worthy adversary, unlike the rest of you," he sneered, riling everyone up as he did.

Dawn wasn't in the mood for fighting, and had re-taken the Sol Emerald. During the speech she had began chanting, and intended to show the full extent of her current emotions, harnessed by the Sol Emerald.

The two gun wielding Egg-Robo's distracted her from her incantation, and she fell to the floor as a pair of blue laser blasts hit her. A battle quickly ensued, as many of the guests to the funeral, though fighters they were not, tried to get rid of Eggman as quickly as possible. Tails tried his best to disable the robots, but an open graveyard is not the best place to try and find weapons. Missiles flew everywhere, and many of the guests decided it would be better to hide.

Amy forced a kick at one of the robots, sending it flying. Tails managed to grab its gun, and shot away a couple of the other robots, as well as the one Amy had knocked over. Bits of robot scattered everywhere, and Amy had to shield her eyes from the brightness of the explosion. In the confusion Eggman launched a claw from his Eggmobile, and snatched the Sol Emerald away. Dawn leapt after it, but could only watch as it landed in Eggman's hands.

"I assume Sonic told you about my NOCC," Eggman said as he placed the emerald into a small metal box. Carefully he pressed a button on the side, and the device began to glow. Tails took it upon himself to shoot Eggman's craft with one of the guns. It hit the ship, knocking the NOCC out of Eggman's hand, and it bounced into Sonic's coffin. There was a bright light and a loud bang which everyone shielded there eyes from.

Tails was knocked flying by an explosion as another shot hit the gravestone next to him. He fell to the ground with a thud, and dropped the gun. Amy ran over and picked it up, shooting away the last of the Egg-Robo's. Eggman used his claw device to scoop up his NOCC, when a loud thud hit the bottom of his ship.

"Not so fast Eggman!" Dawn yelled, as she watched the Eggmobile wobble slightly before righting itself. She looked on as she saw a hedgehog uncurl and prime himself to jump at the Eggmobile again.

"Sonic, I see you've made a recovery then," Eggman said as he straightened out his ship. Sonic didn't saw anything but attempted another jump, falling short as Eggman made his escape, carrying the NOCC, and laughing. "There are still four more emeralds, this isn't the end!" he yelled to his adversaries.

"And we'll stop you before then," Sonic yelled back, before realising what was going on. He blushed slightly, realising that they were still at a funeral.


	8. Jail Bail

-1_I've never really been able to recall my dreams. Usually I wake up, and I'm lucky I can remember a hazy detail. Naturally when I do remember something it's usually weird. Being at a funeral Eggman invaded, for instance, is one of the odder dreams I've had recently, though not as odd as the ones where I end up back in high school and fall in love with another man, but that's another story entirely…_

Sonic awoke slowly. He came to in his cell. Sonic had no idea where he was; just that he was Eggman's prisoner. He had been locked in this cell for ten days, and for the last three his leg had felt as though it had never broken. During this time he had had almost no interaction with anyone or anything bar the one robot which came to give him basic gruel and water sporadically. To Sonic it was obvious he was meant to stay alive. He reasoned that if Eggman had wanted him dead he would've let him starve.

The cell was the same as it had been for as long as Sonic had occupied it. Simple white walls, three of which empty, one with a door in it. The walls were tinted a dim yellow from the one light fixed in the ceiling, which went on and off at random, ruining Sonic's sleep pattern. Near the light there was a small vent. Sonic had initially looked at this for a possibly escape route, but not only was it too small for his body, but also it had a very sharp rotating blade. Sonic discovered the sharpness the hard way, his reflexes being the only thing stopping him from loosing a limb.

The room had one door in or out, with a very small window, covered by a six crossing metal bars. This was sealed from the outside, though Sonic had no idea how. Looking out the window, Sonic could only see a white corridor, there were no markings anywhere along it, and Sonic couldn't tell where it led. Sonic didn't know anything more about where he was, he'd been tied up and blindfolded. The one robot he'd seen in his time here bore almost no identifying marks, bar a small Eggman symbol on its left side. Otherwise the robot was blank.

It was three hours since he woke up that the robot came along again with the day's supply of gruel. Sonic knew he wouldn't stick around for long, and had intended to make his break for it the second he'd noticed his leg was fine. Until now Sonic was counting on the robot assuming he'd had a broken ankle, though the robots sporadic nature meant he'd slept through the robots last three deliveries. Today would be Sonic's day though. The robot slowly entered the room; a gun in one hand, a small amount of food and water in the other, and forced Sonic back against the wall.

"Hey, alright, I'm going," Sonic said, feigning a hobble, as he backed up against the wall. Sonic knew he had just a fraction of a second to get this right, otherwise the robot would notice, and he'd get seriously injured, if not killed. The robot placed the bowl and bottle on the floor, and immediately fell backwards and broke to pieces by the force of a spin attack hitting its leg, then cutting through the torso of the machine. Sonic grabbed a small piece of plastic the robot was clutching, assuming it to be an electric card key, and ran.

Alarms began to sound, and Sonic ran as fast as he could, with no idea which way to go. He knew that one wrong turn would probably see him met by lots of robots, in a dead end, and an even worse jail cell. A pair of Egg-Robo's ran forward as Sonic turned the first corner. He rolled through one instinctively, and jumped back to his feet, continuing to run as the second gave chase, firing a large laser gun at the blue hedgehog. Sonic began to jump all around the corridor, taking as many corners as he could to shake the robot off his tail.

Sonic didn't hesitate to jump through the large glass door, and only registered that the big red writing said "Danger" after the shards had already hit the floor. Running at full pelt now, Sonic could barely register where he was; though there were lots of robots moving about, not all of them willing to stop him. Sonic also knew it was rather hot in here, and eventually guessed he'd stumbled into some sort of generator room.

"Halt hedgehog!" another Egg-Robo said in its dull electric voice. Sonic ignored it, and quickly jumped off some of the metal in the room. Sonic grabbed hold of a round metal disc, and used it to block a couple of shots. What it was he didn't know; he'd flung it at another couple of Egg-Robo's before he had had a chance to look at it. The hedgehog kept running, ducking under low beams, and jumping over floor pipes. Taking a sharp U-turn as he ran into a dead end, Sonic rolled forwards, and knocked over three more Egg-Robos. They got up and began firing, but the hedgehog was gone.

Jumping from the fire, Sonic's stomach made contact with a girder on a string. He hadn't noticed it move before, and the sudden movement had been too quick for him to register. He clung to it as the beam swung round and round. Sonic tried his best to hold on, but slipped, landing on an air vent. His weight caused it to collapse into the ground, and as the pressure built up, he was shot into the air. Curling himself up, he braced himself, as the ceiling crept nearer and nearer.

There was a loud crash as he shot through it into daylight. Sonic gasped at the fresh air, and knew where he was. It was the skyline of one of the city's skyscrapers. The blue hedgehog knew where to head, and rolled down the side of the building. To his surprise, not one of Eggman's robots followed. "He must not want to give away his base," Sonic said aloud, barely able to hear himself as he reached faster speeds rolling down the building than he could while running.

Sonic decided to jump of the building mid-way down, and grabbed hold of a window cleaner's ledge on the building opposite. Carefully using this as a platform, he pulled the rope up, and leapt for the wall of the building, running in a slightly upwards arc. His feet slammed onto the roof of another building, and from there he leapt from building to building, until he knew he could land a drop to the floor without serious injury.

Running through the cars Sonic knew he didn't have time to waste. No matter what Dawn or Tails, or even Amy thought of him and his mental wellbeing, he had proof of Eggman having a base in the city, and he knew they'd all want to stop it. Jumping over a mail box, Sonic ran through familiar streets towards his and Dawn's building. He stopped outside the site of the house to see a crater.

"What in the world?" Sonic said confused.

"Got blown up," a voice answered. It belonged to a large purple cat. Sonic knew the cat lived nearby, though he couldn't place the big cat's name. He did however recall that he kept a pet toad.

"Is Dawn okay?" Sonic asked, hoping for the best of news.

"She's with Tails," The cat answered, and tried to continue, but Sonic had already fled in a blue blur.

Sonic reached Tails' house, and tapped his foot while ringing the doorbell. The second he got in he knew he'd have to eat something, but after that he felt ready to take down Eggman's newest base.

A familiar looking green cat answered the doorbell, "Sonic?" she said puzzled, "but that's imposs…"

"No time," Sonic said, as he entered the building quickly, "I know where Eggman's new base is, it's the…" Sonic trailed off mid sentence. As he walked in the room his eyes had first caught sight of Tails standing in the corner. However what stopped him was that in the chair opposite him sat a blue hedgehog, known to all as Dawn's sidekick Sonic. Both Sonic's starred at each other in disbelief, neither sure what to say to his identical double.


	9. Troubled Doubles

_Over the years we've encountered numerous doppelgangers. From the various Metal Dawn robots, to the creepy Sonic Doll that had mimicked me one time. Some people even mistake Shadow the Cat for Dawn. So it's understandable that when there were two Sonic's in a room, one of them had to be a fake. _

"This must be Eggman's doing," Tails mused, his face in slight disbelief at the sight of two Sonic's.

"So which one is real?" Dawn asked.

"I'm the real Sonic," both Sonic's echoed, "No I am," they said, looking at each other, "No me!" they both shouted, "Stop that!" they both yelled, each of them getting sick of the other echoing the first. The Sonic stood in the doorway stared angrily at the Sonic who was on the chair, who had also begun an angry stare in the direction of the Sonic at the door.

"Right, I've an idea," Tails said, "If nothing else, it'll stop you both doing that horrible thing."

"What horrible thing?" both Sonic's asked simultaneously.

"That," Tails dryly replied. Tails grabbed one of the Sonic's by the wrist, "You're coming with me. Dawn, you stay here with the other Sonic." 

Dawn nodded, and the pair of them sat in the living room. Sonic didn't exactly know what to say to her, he was as confused as anyone else as to what happened. Sonic tried his best to explain to Dawn events as he knew them, explaining how he'd been captured by Egg-Robo's, and held prisoner, and how his ankle had suddenly healed, but Dawn couldn't accept it.

Tails returned after a couple of minutes, swapping one Sonic for the other. Sonic followed Tails down into his basement. Sonic had been in there before, but he still found the contrast from the cosy home to the scientists lab bellow somewhat jarring. Walking down the stairs Sonic glanced over all the technical equipment, and wondered what he had in store for him.

"Okay, now Sonic, if I can ask you to put this on your head," Tails said, sliding a metal dome with wires dangling off of it atop the hedgehogs head, and over his pointy ears, "Now this machine will be able to check your DNA, against that of Sonic as registered in the database."

"You have my DNA on file? Err, how?" Sonic said looking very puzzled.

"You don't want to know," Tails said shuddering slightly, "All you need to do is sit there and answer a few questions while connected to this lie detector," the fox said as he connected a pair of wires to the hedgehogs left arm. Sonic couldn't help but feel as though he looked stupid as he did this, but he had no choice.

Tails asked a few simpler questions at first. Sonic went over what his full name was, his date of birth, the town he had been born in, and the actual place he had been born in as apposed to what he'd told the press. The emphasis soon switched to more personal questions, including what had happened recently, and the events involving the destruction of Dawns apartment, and Sonic's beliefs about Amy.

Soon afterwards Sonic was ushered out of the lab by Tails. Returning to the living room Sonic looked to Dawn, and then to his doppelganger, then his eyes met with Amy's. 

"What's she doing here?" the Sonic by the lab entrance asked.

"That's what I said when she showed up," said the other Sonic.

"Look, I know that lately you, err…" Amy paused, struggling to comprehend the idea of two Sonic's, "Well whichever one of you is the real you," she continued, as both Sonic's shot her a look that said they were the real Sonic, "I know that Sonic the Hedgehog," she eventually settled for as a sentence starter, "has had problems lately, and I'll admit I probably haven't been as supportive I could have been, but I want to help my fiancé."

With that Sonic looked to his double sat in the chair, and could guess they were both thinking the same thing, that they had no idea who Amy was, and loved Dawn. Sonic just sat and starred at his double, and his double starred back. Both of them looked at each other, trying to suss how alike they were.

"Dawn's a green possum!" they both said simultaneously. They then both laughed hysterically at one another, and at the idea as Dawn looked on annoyed, swinging her cat tail, and Amy just looked at them both oddly. Both Sonic's got up to high five each other.

"No, don't!" Dawn yelled, as their hands made contact. Her face went from one of blind panic to calm again as their hands clapped together, "I read somewhere that if you ever make physical contact with yourself from the past, future, or alternate dimension, that it'd be the end of the world."

"Clearly the book was wrong," Amy commented, and watched the two hedgehogs mimic each other perfectly, almost like watching someone play with their mirror image; only the mirror was flipped on itself so when one raised the right arm, the other raised the right arm, and not the left as a mirror would.

Dawn had thought about this, and about the book, "The book could still be right, if one of these is an impostor, y'know."

"At a genetic level, they're identical," Tails interrupted. He held in his hand several sheets of notes attached to a clipboard. The fox began reading through them, "They also both passed the lie detector test, scoring identically in common knowledge, and both of them do believe their sequence of events as they relayed them to be true."

"Even though they're not." Amy interrupted.

"But they are true!" both Sonic's chorused.

"Enough!" Dawn yelled angrily. She was getting fed up and wanted to know which one was Sonic, and which one was the fake. Both Sonic's and Amy fell silent, and the attention turned to Tails, as he continued reading.

"As I was saying," Tails continued, "according to every test here, we do indeed have two Sonics, but both of them are having trouble with their memories."

"My memory?" both Sonics asked, earning several glares as everyone else in the room was getting fed up of their unintentional copying of each other.

"So what you're saying then," Amy replied slowly, "is that neither of these Sonics are the real Sonic?"

Tails scratched his chin, "If either of them is the real Sonic, then Sonic has suffered a blow to his head that has caused his brain to fault."

An idea hit Dawn at this point. She grabbed some paper, and two pens, and handed one to each of the Sonics. "Okay, this is simple. Only the real Sonic would know this; so both of you write down the answer. Whichever one of you gets it right is the real Sonic the Hedgehog. Now, when I was seven, there was an incident with myself and one person I went to school with that led to me getting a weeks suspension unfairly; Who was it?" Dawn asked.

Simultaneously, both of the Sonic's scribbled on their respective pieces of paper. Dawn watched them fold each piece in half, and took them from each of the hedgehogs' one at a time. Unfolding them both her mouth sat aghast to see they had both said "Coconuts the Monkey".

"Well?" The Sonics asked, "Care to tell the other that I'm the real one," the pair of them advised to Dawn, before glaring at each other. 

"It's the same," Dawn answered, "I don't know how, but both Sonic," she said looking at the hedgehog sat on the sofa, "and Sonic" she said, looking to the hedgehog sat on the chair opposite, "are correct. Somehow, there are now two Sonics."

"Now do you believe me, err us," the blue hedgehogs said, "There's something wrong with the world."

"I guess there must be," Dawn said slowly, struggling to accept the idea, "I mean no matter what we perceive as reality, we've never known there to be two Sonics, and here we are with the pair of them in front of us."

"Now hold on a minute," Amy interrupted, "Look, sure, we might have two Sonics, and as much as I love the idea of double Sonic," she said with a cheeky grin that made both the Sonics wince internally, "Sonic's been saying I don't exist. Now I'm stood here right now. Are you saying that I'm just a figment of this messed up reality?" she asked nervously.

"I don't know," Dawn said, "I haven't a clue what is and what isn't real. For all I know this is one of Eggman's tricks. We might all be wrong here, and we all might be living a lie."


	10. Assault Revolt

_Before we knew it we were inside the tower. Having two of me made it much easier to get in, though Amy surprised me with her sharp shooting abilities. That bow of hers was a useful weapon, and while I still remained highly sceptical about her, she was still proving to be more than useful. Dawn on the other hand seemed edgy, though she refused to say what was on her mind._

With a dart landing square in the middle of what would be its head, the first robot fell over backwards. Two more downed tools only to be hit by a pair of identical spinning blue hedgehogs. They both landed, and immediately revved forwards into the next robots sending them flying.

Dawn stood back for a moment. Between Amy's keen targeting, and both the Sonics, the robots weren't putting up much of a fight. However Dawn realised these weren't battle droids, merely worker robots, and she kept her guard up, and waited for the initial attack force.

She didn't have to wait long, as moments after the alarm sounded a squadron of bright yellow robots clutching what looked like rifles barged in through a previously closed metal shutter. They took defensive positions behind the machinery, and forced both Sonics, Amy and Dawn to do the same. Dawn focused on them for a moment, then again at the machinery, and decided to make her move.

"Cover me Amy," she said, as she leapt out from behind what the Sonics thought must've been a metal crushing machine. The pair of them could only watch as she dashed between machines to machine. One of the Sonic's looked at the other and could only guess they were both thinking how he could've done it much quicker. However neither of them expected what was about to happen.

"Eggman, come in Eggman," the green cat spoke into a transmitter she'd pulled from a pocket.

"Speaking," came a crackled reply on the unit.

"The three of them are trapped on floor forty two. Awaiting your presence," she said calmly.

Amy looked puzzled, "Dawn, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" she said sarcastically, before throwing a purple ball of energy at Amy. Amy fell unconscious, seemingly uninjured, but still landed with a loud thud on the cold metal floor.

"Dawn!" both Sonic's pleaded simultaneously, "I don't know what's going on anymore, or what you're up to, but this isn't you. You don't work with Eggman; you fight with us against Eggman."

"Eggman you say?" a familiar cold voice said from behind the Sonics, "Funny, thought you might've known me as Robotnik," Eggman looked to the puzzled faces of the two hedgehogs from his seat in his Eggmobile, "No matter, I see you've been affected by this as well. I'd wager the other five have as well, though I haven't had any encounters with them. Nevertheless I shall stop it, and restore the world to how it should be," he said sinisterly, his ginger moustache wiggling.

Both Sonics were now very confused, and looked at each other nervously. They tensed up, each one trying to hazard a guess as to who the other was again. The sudden betrayal of Dawn was on both the Sonics minds, and looking at each other, both of them found a sudden distrust for each other. Jumping, the pair of them collided in mid air and knocked each other backwards.

With a laugh Eggman took his opportunity, and grabbed the pair in two small blue tinted orbs, only slightly larger than Sonic was when curled up, Both Sonics tried to escape from the balls, sending Eggman shooting forwards, but with cleaver steering he managed to control his vehicle. Grasping the controls, he slammed both the imprisoned hedgehogs against the wall several times, until they stopped resisting.

Eggman then pulled out an all too familiar looking device. Both Sonics recognised it as the R.O.S.C, "I'm actually rather lucky," Eggman gloated, "Dawn here, before she started working for me, apparently chose this very building to hide a Sol Emerald in. Highly ironic really, considering what this building was before."

"What are you babbling about?" one of the Sonics asked, to hear the other Sonic, the one who'd hit the wall ever so slightly harder, agree with him.

"This," Eggman said, producing a green Sol emerald.

Sonic could guess what was about to happen, and as he had figured, Eggman placed the gem very carefully into the contraption, and with a slightly hesitant look on his face, turned the device on.

There was a blinding white flash and a loud screeching white noise. Sonic stuck his hands in his ears for several seconds until the noise stopped. When he let go he found himself stood on solid ground. He surveyed his surroundings. Gone where the mechanical contraptions, replaced by computers and desks. The robot gunmen had been replaced by both humans and animals all wearing suits, and looking slightly baffled to what the hedgehog was doing in there office. The office itself showed no sign of a struggle, save few a few windswept pieces of paper.

"Where's Eggman?" Sonic shouted,

The office workers looked confused, before one of them, a balding polar bear, wearing a green tie, and a red shirt, turned to the hedgehog calmly and said "Look, I know you're a world famous hero and all, but you can't barge into an office like this Mister Shadow"

"Mister Shadow?" Sonic asked confused. He didn't have time to get too many answers, as three very large looking security guards approached him. Sonic was tempted to attack them, until he noticed that they were all very obviously human, or at least two were, the third appeared to be a rhinoceros. Either way, it was obvious they weren't robots, and Sonic had never known Eggman to ever employ living beings, bar all those times he'd deceived Knuckles. But then, Sonic thought, he had just witnessed Dawn betray him. Sonic however had no idea where he was, and he didn't need to risk it. Sonic took the escort out, without making a fuss.

As he left the building he looked at the name above the door. "Chrome Gadgets", he read aloud. Sonic smirked slightly, for some reason the name seem ironic, but Sonic couldn't place why. He just knew they made machines, though he couldn't suss why he was in an office.

This thought slipped from his mind, when he noticed his reflection. The gold rings on his arms seemed a bit out of place, but certainly much less than the white patch of fur on his chest or the black fur in general. The red stripes on his fur confirmed what he was afraid of though; he looked just like Shadow the Hedgehog.


	11. Confusing Musings

_Now I__'__m not overly fussy about my appearance. I try to keep my spines in check, and I keep myself clean, and I only wearing one type of sneakers, mostly because they__'__re the only ones that can handle my speed, but otherwise I__'__m not too fussed. However, looking in the reflection and seeing Shadow looking back was slightly more than alarming._

Sonic continued to look aghast in the mirror. Staring back at him was the familiar face of Shadow the Hedgehog. However, as Sonic was sure, Shadow was a fox like Dawn was. Sonic was suddenly struck with an identity crisis in his mind. He took a step back to take his reflection on the mirrored glass of the offices windows. The red and black spikes, the white patch of fur, even the hover shoes. They were all exactly how Shadow the Fox would look if she was a male hedgehog. However, Sonic recognised this face from more than just his imagination, he _knew _this face.

It was a beeping car horn that made Sonic jump forwards. The hedgehog had unwittingly stepped into the road, and his own reactions had managed to avoid him from being road kill. Sonic finally broke eye contact with the reflected image of Shadow, and decided it was time for some answers. Sonic tried to break into a sprint, and found running on hover skates to be exceptionally difficult, but with a bit of practice the now black hedgehog got the hang of it.

Sonic made a decision to go to Tails. He couldn't trust Dawn if she was sided with Eggman, and he still didn't trust Amy fully. Even if he did, he had no idea what had happened to her since the sudden disappearance of the factory. However, as Sonic had noted from his brief stint of running in that odd way Shadow did; he didn't actually know where he was. Was it possible, Sonic thought, that he had been teleported by Chaos Control.

"Wait," Sonic said to himself, "Chaos Control? What on Earth is that? Shadow always used Sol Control to teleport didn't he? I mean she!" Sonic said angrily with himself. He held his face in his paw and shook his head out of frustration. Sonic was confused now, "Shadow is a female fox, like Dawn is" he said again to himself to clarify his confusion.

Sonic kept running in that daft skating motion. He thought it looked ridiculous when Shadow did it, but wearing the hover shoes, he suddenly understood why Shadow ran like that. However, the more Sonic ran, the more he realised that his surroundings, although similar looking to what he knew, didn't look right. Sonic couldn't put his finger on it, but everything looked disjointed and skewed. It wasn't technically wrong, and Sonic knew where he was, it just didn't look correct. Buildings seemed a little taller, maybe a tree was a different type; Sonic couldn't be sure.

It had taken half an hour for Sonic to find Tails' house. Sonic had apparently got his numbers mixed up, as the number he thought Tails lived at was lived in by three hawks. The youngest of the hawks, Tony had asked for an autograph, and was naturally puzzled when he read the name Sonic. Sonic however didn't have time to explain, and he dashed off to Tails'.

"Shadow," Tails said surprised," What brings you here?"

"Tails, it's me Son- Wait, you recognise me as Shadow?" Sonic asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"Err, why wouldn't I?" Tails asked inquisitively. Sonic could see the worry on Tails' face as he asked.

"Because for one li'l buddy," Sonic said, shocking himself by saying 'li'l buddy'. Sonic shock his head and continued, "I'm actually Sonic, and two, Shadow's a Fox like Dawn and…" Sonic trailed off. For a second he was going to say that Tails was also a fox, but Sonic could see plain as day that Tails was a two tailed cat. Sonic did another double take at this. He recalled a conversation he'd had the other day with Tails, and remembered making that very comment.

"And what?" Tails asked. Tails looked very confused now.

"I … I don't know Tails," Sonic said really nervously, "It doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't Shadow?" Tails said again.

"I'm not Shadow!" Sonic screamed angrily, "And you're not a cat, you're a fox, an eight year old fox. Only you're not, as you're twenty seven, and Dawn's my fiancée and Amy isn't really real. Knuckles is male, and there's no such thing as Julie Su. I'm not Shadow, I'm Sonic the hedgehog, I don't know who the other Sonic is," the hedgehog continued to rant, "but he is not me! I am me, I am Sonic the Hedgehog, I save the world from Dr Robotnik!"

Tails blinked a couple of times, and watched the black hedgehog calm down a bit, before asking what he was wondering "Whose Robotnik?"

"Who's Robotnik?" Sonic said almost laughing, "Robotnik is my enemy. He's the Eggman. He's done something Tails, and nobody can remember it. He killed me, and took me prisoner, and he's teleported away a whole factory from an office block. He even saved my life from the very doctor he'd sent to kill me."

Tails had heard enough to make up his mind. He'd humoured the black hedgehog long enough, and now he intended to make it very obvious that he wasn't up for it anymore, "So Robotnik killed you?" he asked calmly.

"Yes," came the reply.

"But you're alive now Shadow?" Tails asked, catching the glare from the hedgehog.

"Yes," came a disgruntled reply.

"Do you not see why I can't believe you?"

"He's got to you!" Sonic shouted again, "He's messed with you."

"I think its best you calm down," Tails said in a tone Sonic thought was slightly sinister. Sonic felt a sudden jab in his arm, and he noticed Tails remove a needle, just before everything went black.

Sonic woke up a couple of hours later. He was in a white cell again. However, unlike the last one, Sonic noticed that this cell was padded. Sonic tried to get up off the floor, but found his arms couldn't move. Looking down he noticed a clean white straight jacket. Sonic sighed, and collapsed on the floor. He looked to the ceiling. Perhaps he had lost his marbles, he thought to himself.

"I mean how could Tails be both an eight year old cat, and a twenty seven year old fox? How could he have both one tail and two tails?" he mused to himself, "How can there be two of me, and how can I suddenly turn into someone who I remember, yet doesn't exist in this form?"

"Because this isn't real," a voice answered. It was a female voice, Sonic was sure of that, but he couldn't recognise it. The hedgehog tilted his head to the source of the voice, but could only see the door.

"Who are you?" Sonic beckoned out. He listened carefully, but several voices all came at once. Sonic was aware of the fact that it was most likely he was in an insane asylum, but finally someone was agreeing with him, and he had to try and hope that whoever it was, was also experiencing what he was, and could help him. Sonic knew it was a long shot, but it was all he had.

"My name's Tikal," the voice said calmly, "and I'm one of the seven servers of the Sol Emeralds."


	12. Insane explain

_Now the name Tikal seemed familiar to me, but by now almost everything seemed familiar, and I had no idea what was going on anymore. It was possibly why I was in a mental hospital, but I was sure that something was very wrong as things where. I just didn__'__t know how it should be, and that made explaining all these changes so difficult. As odd as everything was, I had to admit to myself, that if I was on the receiving end of the story of the last few days, I too would wonder about the teller__'__s sanity._

Sonic didn't recognise the voice talking. However, right now he didn't even recognise himself in a mirror, so he relented and accepted that while he might not know whoever it was telling him this, Sonic had to assume they would be somewhat helpful.

The name Tikal dumbfounded Sonic. It was yet another of those things he thought he recognised but couldn't place. Sonic imagined that whoever the voice belonged to, they were pink, but that was all he could place. Sonic was disappointed slightly then, when he eventually managed to get up, and saw a small bee in the cell opposite his. It was flying haphazardly, as if it wasn't used to having wings, and didn't look like it was any older than about seven.

"Is that you Sonic?" the bee asked cautiously, looking at the now black hedgehog.

Sonic didn't say anything for a moment; he was having difficulty placing why the bee looked familiar. The bee was kind of familiar to Sonic, and moved in an awkward yet somewhat _charming_ kind of way. The bee repeated again to Sonic, looking slightly less optimistic as it did.

"Yes, sorry," Sonic apologised, "Just kinda weird looking at you, you're not how I imagined Tikal would look."

"To be fair," the bee answered, "You're not how Sonic _should_ look"

Sonic chuckled, the bee was right. Sonic began to wonder how Tikal knew Sonic wasn't Shadow, when everyone else refused to accept anything but. He asked Tikal this.

"Because I'm one of the servers of Sol," she answered solemnly.

"And what does that mean?" Sonic asked, no clearer.

There was a quiet creaking of floorboards, and Tikal went quiet. Sonic watched as two white coated men carried away a small red armadillo. Sonic listened as it screamed about how he didn't exist anymore, and wondered if he too would go through what the armadillo was likely to undergo.

"You were saying?" Sonic said, ushering Tikal to say more.

"The seven servers," she answered slowly, "are seven creatures, united under the Sol Emeralds. They can harness the abilities of the Sol Emeralds."

"So Dawn is one of them?" Sonic asked, more confused.

Tikal didn't answer, "The servers of Sol," she continued, "are to join together, and defeat the monster of Sol."

"You mean that wind monster?" Sonic enquired, trying to make sense of everything he was told, and how it related to what he knew.

"Perfect Sol is not the creature I speak of," Tikal said calmly.

"Then what is?" Sonic said, getting impatient.

Tikal was about to speak, when the wall behind her crumbled away. Sonic could only watch as an Egg-Robo walked in amidst the rubble and dust. Sonic began to fight harder against his straight jacket, desperate to free himself, as the large red robot stood over the bee, as it begged to be spared. The robot had other ideas, and shot her. Sonic watched as the once ecstatic bee's body fell limp and lifeless to the floor bellow. Sonic screamed loudly, as several of the mental patients began yelling loudly about conspiracy theories

The Egg-Robo turned towards Sonic, and looked at the hedgehog with what Sonic would call its eyes. Sonic tensed himself, and still struggled with his jacket, his struggling only making it more difficult to move. The Egg-Robo stood looking at him, before a crackle broke from the machine.

"You are to come with me," it said.

"Never!" Sonic yelled loudly, "I'd never go with you Eggman."

"Fine, don't then," Eggman said through the speakers, "I just figured you'd want to know what on Earth's going on with Mobius, Sonic."

That sentence struck Sonic oddly. The word 'Mobius' seemed familiar, and it puzzled Sonic how Eggman knew Sonic was actually Sonic, and not Shadow, as everyone else had been saying.

Sonic's thoughts where interrupted, "It's not as if you can learn anything more from Tikal," the doctor scoffed through the speaker on the robot.

Sonic felt himself get angry. The scene from only a few seconds ago shot through his mind again, "You killed her!" he screamed angrily at the robot, "She hadn't done anything,"

"She was telling you too much;" Eggman interrupted coldly, "Asides, Tikal has been dead for over three thousand years."

Sonic was going to say something, but Eggman's last sentence had hit him. Sonic tried to remember, and while he couldn't bring up a memory, Sonic knew Eggman was right. Tikal had indeed been dead for a long time, and Sonic only ever knew Tikal as a ghost. But here she was, clear as day, as a living being. Sonic mentally added it to his list of things that didn't make sense, along with Eggman offering to help.

However, Sonic was still sceptical, "How do I know this isn't all a big trick, Eggman?" he asked cautiously.

"You don't," Eggman laughed gleefully, "So I'll make this simple, you can either come with this Egg-Robo, or I'll kill Dawn."

Sonic felt his pulse race at the mention. Sonic mentally kicked himself. For everything the fox had done recently, including betraying him and revealing herself to be working for Eggman, he still loved her; even though she'd made it clear she never felt the same. But it still didn't add up in Sonic's head. Sonic knew he loved Dawn, and somewhere in his mind, he was sure Dawn loved him. As it stood, his and Dawn's love was the only thing he didn't doubt, even if he was engaged to Amy.

"Thirty seconds," Eggman said, growing impatient, "Or I'll kill her anyway.

Sonic had already made up his mind. However, he wasn't going to reveal that to Eggman, "What do you actually want with me?"

"I'll explain if you come with my robot," Eggman said coldly. Sonic took the hint and guessed that Eggman wasn't planning to relent. Sonic didn't really have much choice. Sighing, he surrendered himself.

With this, the Egg-Robo raised its gun at the hedgehog. Sonic yelled angrily about a double cross, until he felt a warm singe as the robot cut the black hedgehog free from the confinement of the straight jacket, Sonic looked down his body, still not comfortable with how it looked

Sonic followed the round robot out of the hole. The robot lead them into daylight, and Sonic realised he was on an island. He suddenly understood why Eggman needed Sonic to go with the robot, when the robot revealed a large jetpack, and prepared to take off.

"Wait a second," Sonic said, suddenly realising something, "If you've just blown a hole in the wall of an insane asylum, why is nobody concerned? Surely there should be guards, and doctors trying to stop the patients from getting free right?"

"They've been dealt with," Eggman said coldly through the speakers. The static from them had subsided since they had left the building.

"Eggman you cold hearted maniac!" Sonic yelled.

"Relax," Eggman said calmly, as the robot picked up Sonic, and flew them off the island, "As you'll soon learn, nothing I do has any consequence on anything."


	13. Disaster Answer

_Now it has to be said, this was not an ideal situation to be stuck in. For the entirety of the flight I was pretty much reliant on Eggman__'__s word. However, at this point it wasn__'__t like I had much else to rely on, and while with hindsight it was probably not the cleverest thing I__'__ve done, in that situation I would__'__ve done the same again._

Sonic found himself in the middle of a large wood. Eggman had suggested this as a neutral place to meet. Naturally, this made Sonic even tenser, and the white patch of fur on his chest visible stood on edge. The black hedgehog had got used to this body now, even if he didn't like how it looked. Sonic had been looking in a nearby pond; no matter how hard he tried to move his cheekbones, Sonic currently found it almost impossible to smile.

Eggman's appearance caused the Egg-Robo to salute, something the hedgehog found somewhat amusing, particularly as the robots joints didn't allow for a proper salute, and instead it settled for a mere gun tap to the head.

Eggman lowered his Eggmobile slowly, the vehicle kicking up a few leaves and broken twigs as it landed. The engine's roar ceased, and slowly Eggman walked out. It occurred to Sonic at this point, that this was the very first time he'd ever seen Eggman enter or exit the vehicle. Needless to say, watching Eggman leap out of the seat, and land on his feet, was not only impressive for a man of his stature, but also made Sonic wonder why the thing had never been fitted with a door.

"Sonic, Sonic, Sonic," the man said, walking towards the black hedgehog, "You look… well different to how I remember."

"At least you know that this who I am," Sonic said, trying to smile, but still scowling.

"Of course I do," Eggman said walking back to his Eggmobile. His left hand clutched his right hand behind his back as he walked. "You're the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog, saviour of Mobius, and the prime server," Eggman grinned.

Sonic said nothing. The bee, Tikal, had mentioned something about servers of Sol; was Eggman referring to this? Sonic contemplated this for several moments mentally as Eggman continued.

"And yet," Eggman's voice echoed loudly, "you're not. Not currently anyway. Looking at you, you look just like Shadow the Hedgehog, and judging by the increased scowl on your face," Eggman observed correctly, "I'm not the first person to think that."

The hedgehog crossed his arms and began tapping his foot. He was used to Eggman taking forever to get to a point. It annoyed him, like the villain spending ages to explain a key plot detail in a big budget film annoyed him.

However, unlike a film, Sonic wasn't in any real danger. The doctor had been true to his word, and save for the one robot which had brought Sonic here, and the Eggmobile which Eggman had arrived in, the woods were empty.

"What's your point, Eggman?" Sonic said coldly.

"My point is that I need your help Sonic," Eggman said, a sincere look of concern sitting disjointedly on his moustached face, "I'm sure you've noticed all the changes recently."

Sonic nodded, saying nothing, as he listened to Eggman talk.

"They're an unfortunate side effect of the destruction of the Sol Emeralds," Eggman said calmly.

"Then why are you destroying them?!" Sonic yelled, angry at the nonsensicalness of Eggman's actions.

"To fix reality," Eggman answered calmly.

"By breaking it further?"

"I didn't think you'd understand."

"Try explaining then," Sonic said, getting impatient.

Eggman sighed, and rubbed his glasses wearily, "Sonic, the reason I came you here is to tell me where the last few emeralds are, or for you to help me find them,"

"And why should I do that?" Sonic asked, now scowling intentionally.

"As I said, to fix reality," Eggman said, trying to hide his frustration at Sonic's comparative stupidity, "The emeralds are what olds this reality together, and by destroying them, we can destroy reality completely."

"You want to destroy the world," Sonic snapped, "I'm not helping.

Eggman changed his tact, "Sonic, do you know of the Chaos Emeralds?"

Instinctively the hedgehog shook his head, but something in the back of his mind had heard the name before. For now though, Sonic was content to ignore this, he was still trying to figure out why Eggman what Eggman meant. Destroying reality to save reality seemed like a backwards step, and considering this was Eggman, Sonic had his doubts.

"We're not supposed to have the Sol Emeralds, I think you know this. This entire reality is a lie. I don't know however how much of what is here is real though. But for every Sol Emerald destroyed, the image of what should be becomes clearer. Once all seven are destroyed, it should be poss…"

Sonic's eyes shot open, Eggman suddenly found himself clutching a large spear that was protruding from his chest. Within moments Eggman collapsed to the ground, his face still shot with the pain of the spear.

A red Echidna leapt out of the trees. Landing crouched; she got up slowly and looked tensely at the black hedgehog stood in front of her.

"Why did you do that Knuckles?" Sonic said, his voice seething with rage and confusion. Sonic was annoyed, as much as he hated to admit it, Eggman was making sense.

"Why was he calling you Sonic?" Knuckles asked, ignoring Sonic's comment.

"Because I am Sonic," Sonic answered, enraged that the Echidna didn't recognise him.

"Whatever," the Echidna answered, "I don't have time for this. I have to get the corpse back to GUN.

"GUN?" Sonic replied, "You're the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, what are you doing working for GUN?"

Knuckles didn't answer. He simply cocked his eyebrow, and looked at Sonic.

"Never mind," Sonic said, realising that Knuckles had also been affected by this latest reality shift, "But what do GUN want with Eggman?"

"You mean other than the fact that he's the most wanted man on the planet?"

"Good point," Sonic observed. Sonic was still annoyed by the fact that Eggman had been killed. Sonic had always wanted to capture Eggman, it would've allowed for some answers. Now more than ever Sonic was after answers, and the actions of an angry Echidna had taken the one source of answers Sonic had.

There was a small explosion behind them. Sonic looked to it, and watched the Egg-Robo self destruct. A small bird flew free, chirping as it did.

"There goes my ride," Sonic said sarcastically, as he tried to figure out where he was. Knuckles motioned to the Egg Mobile, saying Sonic could use it as an escape. Sonic mentioned that piloting wasn't his skill, but he relented when Knuckles pointed out that she had arrived by swimming to the island they were on. Sonic asked how the echidna intended to take the corpse back, but Knuckles assured Sonic she wouldn't have any difficulty swimming while carrying Eggman's corpse. As if to prove a point, she lifted the body up and disappeared quickly back into the woods.

Sonic was going to follow, but something in the back of his mind made him look to the Egg Mobile. Sure enough, in the glove compartment was the device that destroyed the Sol Emeralds. Sonic looked at it for a second and the words Eggman had said repeated in his mind.

The oddest part of this though, was that sat in the glove compartment next to the device, was a shining purple Sol Emerald.


	14. Wondering Wanderer

_Egg Mobiles are surprisingly easy to pilot. It__'__s literally like playing a videogame. The driving stick functions like many console handsets. Just don__'__t press the shoulder buttons, unless you__'__re wanting to attack anything near by. Unlike a videogame though, they also get pretty hot pretty quickly if you try to fly them too fast._

It was the smoke that made Sonic decide that he should probably try to make an escape from the craft. He made a grab for both the R.O.S.C, and the purple Sol Emerald, and jumped out of the cockpit, rolling as he landed. Sonic watched as the Egg Mobile went careening wildly without a pilot, and eventually colliding with a cliff face. Debris from the craft fell to the floor around the black hedgehog as it took stock of its surroundings.

"Looks like Rail Canyon," Sonic said, noticing the bizarrely twisted multicoloured train tracks up above. They were too high for him to reach, and due to the fact that the actual canyon was basically deserted, there was no way up to the metal platforms above him. The canyon itself was surrounded on either side by cliffs that overhang, making it impossible for Sonic to spin dash his way up to them. Sonic began to stretch, the only option was to take a sprint away, and hope he'd picked the right direction. Bearings and locations where never Sonic's strong point, though when you travel at the speed of sound, they never need to be.

Luck was on Sonic's side this time, and before he knew it, he was in the familiar sights of the city he called home. Well, kind of. The sign did indeed read Capital City, but it didn't look like how Sonic remembered. Saying that, Sonic didn't look as he remembered, and nor did anyone else. Sonic thought about what Eggman had said about the Sol Emeralds. Was this there doing, he mused.

Something in Sonic's brain made him remember Dawn. This was no surprise; he would often find himself randomly thinking of her, it was something people in love did. Sonic sighed loudly, confused. He stopped underneath a tree, and sat in the shade. He needed to think where he would head next.

Sonic looked to his paw, and the purple gem residing in it. Then he looked at the machine. It was a simple looking device, put the emerald in a compartment, press the only button, and the machine would do whatever it was that it did to destroy the emeralds. How it worked, or how it was made was far too beyond Sonic's level of scientific understanding. Sonic thought that Tails would know, but after Tails had injected him, and sent him to an insane asylum, Sonic was a bit wary about returning to Tails for this.

With Dawn having switched sides, and pledging allegiances to Eggman, the only option now was Amy. Sonic sighed louder, he didn't want this, but for now the only person he could trust was someone who by and rights shouldn't even exist. However, he needed someone on his side, and as it stood, Amy was the only option. Getting up, the hedgehog quickly got into skating motion, and headed for the last place he knew Amy to live.

Within less than a minute, Sonic was stood outside the front door. He banged on it twice, then turned around, and watched the cars go by as he waited. A small pink hedgehog opened the door.

"Hi," the child said.

Shadow looked to the hedgehog, vaguely recognising the face, "Amy?" he asked, noticing the difference between this young hedgehog in the green shirt and orange dress, and the usual look Amy had. This hedgehog's spikes were more streamlined like Sonics used to be, though not quite as sharp.

The hedgehog nodded, "Yup, I'm her," she answered, "What can I do for you?"

Sonic looked baffled, this Amy couldn't have been older than eight. He figured this was another part of the craziness Eggman was talking about. "Amy Rose?" he asked, figuring he might have the wrong building.

The pink hedgehog nodded again, "Yup. That's me alright," she answered enthusiastically.

"The same one whose engaged to Sonic?" Sonic asked, figuring that not only would Amy not recognise Sonic as he looked like Shadow, but that she would only accept reality as she knew it, whether he knew it to be wrong or not. Sonic figured he wouldn't get anywhere if he was going to tell people what they'd refuse to accept straight off the bat.

The young hedgehog giggled, "Don't be silly mister. I'm only eight; I'm far too young to be getting married."

Sonic couldn't help but internally breathe a very large sigh of relief. At last, after so long, he'd got Amy to quit bugging him. Sonic shook his head again; once again, that's not how things were supposed to be. Amy never existed; she couldn't have been bugging him for years.

"You are the Amy that helps Sonic though, right?" Sonic said, seeing if he was wasting his time or not.

"Yup, why?" Amy answered.

Sonic suddenly found himself dumbfounded. His only hope now was with a small child, who most likely wasn't able to help him. Sonic sighed, and he had no choice. He showed her the device, and began to tell her what had happened. As he got the part where Tikal died, he noticed the child had become very confused, and upon hearing the details she ran off in tears, closing the door behind her.

Sonic looked at the door for a second, before relenting and walking off the stoop. He was out of options now. He looked to the ground, and the device caught his eye again. An idea struck Sonic's mind. He admitted to himself it wasn't a sensible one, but it was the only option. Perhaps Eggman was right. There was only one way for Sonic to find out. Sonic carefully inserted the purple emerald into the machine. He looked at it solemnly.

"Here goes nothing," he said, averting his eyes from the machine, as he pressed the only button

"Don't do it Sonic!" the black hedgehog heard someone scream, just as everything faded into a very white brightness.

Sonic's first reaction was to look down. He looked at his shoes. Classic red, with a white stripe. Sonic smiled, and looked at his blue legs as they extended out of his shoes towards his torso. Sonic looked at his patch of peachy white fur on his belly, and along his arms. He smiled as he saw his white gloves, and ran them along his spines. Although he didn't have a mirror, he was sure that he was indeed Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sonic's next thought was that of the voice. He had no idea who it was, and judging by how everyone was now acting normally, albeit giving him odd looks for being overjoyed with looking at himself, Sonic could only assume whoever it was who was saying that was no longer near by.

Sonic had also realised that he'd lost hold of the device, but that didn't matter. Sonic was now Sonic, now all he had to do was hope there was someone who would at least be on his side. Sonic ran, hoping as best he could that the destruction of the fifth emerald Sol Emerald would help somewhat, and that nothing would mess up the other three.

Sonic shook his head again. Since when was there eight Sol Emeralds, he thought to himself.


	15. Finding Time

_Being honest with myself, here was where I probably lost it. I__'__d just destroyed a Sol Emerald after all. But thinking on it, doing that had turned me back in to myself. I no longer looked like Shadow, and as far as I was concerned, that was a good start. I still needed to check what else had been changed though, and a niggling little part of my brain kept telling me I__'__d only made things worse. _

Sonic made another dash for Tails' home. This time at least he'd be able to persuade Tails that he was indeed Sonic, and not any form of double. Once again Sonic had lost his bearings, this was becoming increasingly common. Sonic chalked it up to this reality shift. He internally kicked himself. As much as he hated the idea, it seemed like Eggman was right. It was also agreeing with what Tikal had said. Normally he wouldn't have agreed with Eggman, but there was definitely something wrong here.

Tails had fitted Sonic's wrist communicator with a global positioning system, and it had several locations pre-marked on it. While Sonic didn't recognise the area at all, or at least not as where anyone he knew lived, the GPS was leading him, and Sonic was following it's directions to the letter. So the large pile of rubble near by came as quite a shock.

Sonic's eyes surveyed the scene. The rubble looked several days old, and there were several workmen roaming around. Sonic stopped one of them, a panda, and asked what was going on. The panda looked at the hedgehog and recognised him instantly.

"You were there Sonic. It was all over the news," The panda said slowly, "I'm sorry for your loss."

"My loss?" Sonic asked, already throwing a spanner into his 'don't make it obvious there's something wrong' plan.

"Tails" the panda mumbled, tilting his head downwards, "You have my sympathy."

Sonic said nothing, the very idea of Tails dying made the hedgehog's eyes water. Sonic dashed away with a burst of speed, partially out of sadness, partially out of confusion.

A familiar looking pink hedgehog tapped on Sonic's shoulder. It was Amy, albeit the Amy Sonic had first met, in her usual red dress, and not the young Amy Sonic had seen just before he'd destroyed the emerald. Sonic looked at her, and relented. If Tails was indeed dead, and with Dawn defecting sides, he didn't really have any choice but talk to her.

"Are you okay Sonic?" she asked.

"Yeah," Sonic hesitated, "it's just…"

"Tails' demise?"

"Yeah, it's just…"

"It's alright Sonic. You did the best you could. You and Dawn…" Amy said trailing off, before adding "Sorry."

"It's alright," Sonic said slowly, "with everything recently, it's been hard to make heads or tails of reality itself. One minute it's me and Dawn, the next it's not. Now Tails is dead, and Dawn's switched sides. It's all very confusing."

"It's been a hectic fortnight alright," Amy said. She watched Sonic look a little disheartened as she spoke. "Hey, well if you hadn't heard, Shadow and Knuckles caught Eggman."

"They caught him?" Sonic asked, surprised. He was there, Knuckles had killed Eggman. The memory ran through his brain.

"Well kind of," Amy said, the smile slipping from her face slightly, "they did capture him, but before they could get him to a jail he took his life."

Sonic rolled his eyes upwards discreetly. This reality had changed more than just how Sonic had looked. An idea suddenly developed in his head. "Has anyone been to Dawn's building since she revealed herself to be a traitor?"

Within minutes the pair of them had reached Dawn's building. Although he didn't say anything, Sonic was slightly surprised to see it intact. Having a bomb destroy it obviously means nothing when the entire basis of reality had changed several times since. The realisation suddenly twigged in his mind. In this reality it was Tails who had died in a house explosion. Sonic asked Amy about it, and she looked at him oddly, but told him about the fight against Eggman's spider machine.

The pair of them spent several minutes routing around Dawns house searching for clues. Amy had admitted she thought it was a silly idea, considering how often the both of them had been in this building without it ever being apparent that Dawn was up to something dodgy with Eggman, but Sonic had insisted. Sonic partially admitted to himself that there was slim to no chance of finding anything, but Sonic didn't have much of a better idea what to do, and neither did Amy.

Rummaging through her drawers Sonic only turned up clothes and small memento's of past events. Sonic knew much of it was there, he'd seen them before. A bolt from the first robot she'd ever destroyed, a broken key from the lock of her first bike, a 'Blaze the Cat' figure, from the TV show 'Adventure's of Silver The Hedgehog', a cinema ticket from the night Sonic had first kissed Dawn.

"Wait a minute," Sonic said, stunned by this find, "A cinema ticket from our first date? Does this mean…"

Sonic didn't get time to find an answer. Instead he found himself running towards the sound of a screaming Amy. Running down the stairs, Sonic looked even more aghast to see a hidden stairwell.

"Behind the bookcase," Amy answered, pre-empting Sonic's question, "There was a button hidden inside a book.

"But I read most of those," Sonic protested, "which one was it in?"

"Surviving The Crisis: Omnibus edition" Amy answered.

"Makes sense, I never did like any of STC:O" Sonic said, attracting a glare from Amy.

"Should we go down then?"

There was a buzzing. Sonic looked to his wrist, and pressed a small button. Someone was trying to get in touch with him. Sonic hesitated a moment before answering.

"Sonic, at last!" the voice of Knuckles said, "I've been trying to get in touch with you for ages. Where have you been these last few days?"

"I've been around," the hedgehog said, trying to avoid berating Knuckles for her actions, "What is it?"

"I figured you should know; we caught Dawn. GUN's finally done it, we've finally defeated the Eggman Empire," Knuckles answered, pleased with herself.

An idea crept into Sonic's mind. If Dawn was alive, perhaps she could explain what Eggman was on about. "Knuckles," Sonic said, not wanting to give away his intentions, "would it be possible for me to speak with her?"

"But the basement…" Amy protested loudly?

"Basement?" Knuckles asked.

"Inside Dawn's building," Sonic answered, "We just found it."

"I think you've just done GUN a favour," Knuckles replied, "Stay there, GUN troops will be there soon."

"And can I speak with Dawn then?" Sonic asked, starting to get agitated. He had serious questions for her now.

"Once this is dealt with. I'll be there. When GUN is done there, then we will take you to her." Knuckles answered, "We'll be there within the hour. Knuckles out," the echidna said, ending her transmission.

"Great," Sonic muttered somewhat sarcastically.

"Why do you want to speak to Dawn?" Amy asked hesitantly.

Sonic thought for a moment, before replying, "You mean to tell me you're not curious about all of this?"

"I see your point," Amy said, "But do you really think she'll answer?"

"I hope so," Sonic muttered, "I really hope so."


	16. Cellar Terror

_Now in all honesty, I__'__m not a patient hedgehog. It__'__s one of those qualities I__'__ll be the first to admit I lack. Partially because I__'__ve almost never had a need to wait for anything. Hence why I was relieved when Knuckles showed up after just ten minutes. Any other time and I would__'__ve just gone done myself, but I needed GUN co-operation, to speak to Dawn, and that meant waiting._

Knuckles walked in nonchalantly, followed quickly by a green fox that Sonic spent several minutes trying to recognise, before spotting it was Shadow. The fox stared blankly at Sonic and said nothing. Sonic stared back briefly, before looking to Knuckles.

Knuckles looked back, and asked "So where's the basement then?"

"Behind the bookcase," Amy replied, re-opening it. The bookcase slid to one side, Shadow stepping out of the way as it did. Knuckles looked immediately inside, and had Shadow follow her. Sonic followed behind quickly, already eager for the wait.

Carefully the four of them made there way down the stairs. Unsure what to expect, both Knuckles and Shadow held there guns cautiously, yet ready. Amy too clutched her crossbow, though not with the same professionalism of the two GUN agents. As usual Sonic was unarmed, though he felt he was the best protected of the lot.

"Did you look down here at all?" Knuckles asked.

"I looked in the opening of the bookcase," Amy said, "but I didn't go in, and neither did Sonic."  
"So no-one knows what's down here?" Shadow asked dryly, "Great, just what I always wanted," he muttered sarcastically.

The four of them reached a large metal door. Knuckles put his back against the wall, and signalled everyone to be quiet. Shadow then kicked the door flying open, and he and Knuckles swept the line of there weapons along as the door opened, prepared for anything behind the door that could attack them.

The sight that greeted them was not what any of the four imagined. Instead of a complicated lair, all that was here was a desk, a table, and a computer. There was nothing else in the room bar some dust and a couple of cobwebs. The computer was off, and cold to touch. Shadow breathed a slight sigh of relief that there was nothing else in here, and lowered his gun.

"So what's on the machine then?" Amy asked impatiently.

Knuckles glanced at it. She wasn't a technical expert, but with the microphone attached she was willing to guess, "It's some type of communications device," she answered, "possibly how Dawn got her orders and reported to Eggman."

"Turn it on," Sonic said.

"What?" Knuckles asked hesitantly, "that thing will connect us to Eggman's base."

"And he's dead," Amy answered, "So what's the issue?"

"Well, nothing I guess," Knuckles relented, and turned on the computer, "But we'll probably need a password.

"Leave that to me," Sonic said, surprising even himself with his arrogance. However, something in the hedgehog's gut told him he was right. Something he proved when the machine logged on fully.

"How did you know the password?" Shadow asked, confused. He wasn't going to say it, but he suddenly found himself suspicious of Sonic.

"I don't know. Just something in my mind said the password would be 'Poloi'," the hedgehog answered.

"Well it was a lucky guess," Knuckles said.

"And now we can trace back to Eggman's base, and remove his threat from the world once and for all," Shadow said, nodding with determination, before adding, "though it'll take me a couple of minutes."

"So Sonic," Amy said, trying to make conversation, "What exactly is it you want to say to Dawn anyway?"

"Yeah," Knuckles interrupted, "I'd like to know that too. What's so important that you need to talk to her so urgently?"

Sonic hesitated. He didn't want to explain the story to them, as he was sure they wouldn't believe him. On the other hand he did want to know what she actually knew about it. He also wanted to know why she had things which, according to reality shouldn't even exist. Ultimately, Sonic just wanted find out if she honestly felt anything for him. In all this confusion, not knowing if she loved him hurt the most.

"Well," Amy said, "What do you have to say to her? I know you and her were dating and all that," Amy paused, before realising what she was saying.

Sonic lowered his head slightly, trying to hide his relief that Amy wasn't his fiancée in this reality, "Yeah, that's it," he said slowly, "I just need to know what is and what isn't a lie."

"I know Sonic," Knuckles said reassuringly, "But she was working for Eggman. It's entirely possible your relationship was faked from the start as part of his plans."

"But I was her sidekick," Sonic trailed off.

"Sidekick?" Amy said, surprised, "You were fighting Eggman long before she was," Amy herself paused, "Or at least, I think that's how it went," she added hastily.

Before Sonic could reply, Shadow shouted for there attention. "I found it," he said, "Eggman's final base, and it's right here in the city."

"It is?" Amy asked.

"Yep," Shadow said, and pointed them to a map.

"You realise where that is right?" Knuckles said patronisingly.

"Chrome Gadget Industries," Sonic read aloud, his memory reminded of the time spent with his double, and how all that had changed when Eggman had used the emerald destroying machine. That seemed like so long ago now, but it couldn't have been more than two days at most, Sonic thought.

"Yep," Knuckles replied, "Only that's a cover. CGI is actually a GUN facility."

"It is?" Shadow said, surprised at this announcement.

"It's our payroll division," Knuckles sighed. She dragged her hand down her face to emphasise how annoyed she was by his stupidity.

"Why would you hide the payroll department when everything else is hardly secret?" Amy asked.

"Because this makes it harder for people to attack us through our wallets," Knuckles answered, unwilling to explain fully why. The truth was she didn't understand the need for the added security, "We'll have to sweep out the whole place then," she continued, "Somewhere in GUN there's a mole working for Eggman.

Sonic continued biting his lip. He knew that Eggman really had had a base there, and that this would be a wild goose chase. However, he knew saying that would incriminate him. Nevertheless, his patience would pay off. Soon he would get to speak with Dawn, and maybe finally he would get some answers.

It was half hour later that Sonic found himself in a room opposite the one with Dawn in. She was handcuffed, and was wearing a shock collar. Sonic was looking in through a one way mirror, and he knew Dawn couldn't yet see him. From this Knuckles would watch, and if Dawn tried to get aggressive the echidna would shock Dawn. Sonic had insisted that GUN didn't listen. Knuckles had protested this, but conceded defeat when Sonic reminded Knuckles of a certain photo he had possession of.

Sonic walked into the room, and looked at Dawn sadly. She slowly opened her eyes, "Hello Sonic," she said calmly.

Sonic didn't answer. He was too shocked by the fact that part of Dawns face had clearly been injured, and behind it was a piece of metal exoskeleton.


	17. Robotic Psychotic

_Lets be honest for a second, if you were a robot, you would only be able to hide that from those you were__…__ for lack of a better word, intimate with, for so long. Now I hadn__'__t been able to suss everything, but the universe currently seemed to think me and Dawn were intimate but I had to admit I was shocked by her robotics. I just had no idea if I should be shocked or not._

"I bet you're shocked to see me like this," Dawn said quietly.

"Yeah," Sonic stuttered, before he shook his head quickly. Sonic needed to snap out of the shock and start questioning her on things, he needed things to make sense, and he needed it to happen sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, he had completely lost all sense of what was going on around him now. The best he could do was ask Dawn, "Just what is going on then?"

"How do you mean," She replied, to be met with a glare from Sonic's green eyes.

"Where do I begin?" Sonic asked rhetorically, "Lets see, Tails is dead, you're working for Eggman, who's also dead, and five of the seven," Sonic paused, realising what he was saying, "Sorry, _eight _of the Sol Emeralds have been destroyed."

"And?" Dawn said calmly.

"And I want to know what you know? Why did you switch sides to work for Eggman? How long have you been working for him? Why are you even the spy when you're the leader of our group?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not the leader," Dawn interrupted, "It's always been equal. Always has been, and always will be." Dawn smiled.

"It can't be!" Sonic screamed in frustration. "It can't be because Eggman is dead, and you're a traitor!"

Dawn didn't say anything. Neither did Sonic. Dawn just sat there calmly, watching Sonic as he paced his anger off. If he could have, Sonic would have gone for a leisurely five hundred mile jog to calm down. As it was though, he'd agreed with Knuckles to stay and keep Dawn talking.

After a while Sonic remembered what GUN wanted to know. Patiently he asked her of all of Eggman's remaining factories. Knuckles' ears perked up as she gave detailed information. Sonic could acutely here the sound of pens frantically taking notes as he wandered near the window. He looked at the window, and sighed slightly.

"Dawn," the hedgehog said quietly, "Do you love me?"

The robotic fox sat there, unresponsive. Sonic asked the same question twice more, the desperation on his voice increasing with each repetition. On the third, Dawn tilted her head downwards, and Sonic saw a single tear roll down her left eye.

"It wasn't supposed to happen," she answered with hesitation, "I wasn't supposed to fall for you."

"How was it supposed to happen?" Sonic asked, feeling heartbroken already. Nevertheless the hedgehog had to bottle it inside for now. Sonic couldn't allow his emotions to get the better of him, not if he wanted some answers.

"I was just supposed to provide intelligence," Dawn said, tears flowing from her left eye. Her right eye remained unflinching. Sonic guessed this was down to the robotics. It was becoming more obvious to Sonic now that Dawn was only part robot, and there was still a living conscious fox in the mix.

"Why?" Sonic asked, "Why did you do it?"

"I didn't have any choice," the fox answered, "These cybernetics; Eggman managed to get control of them. If I didn't betray you, he would have shut them down and left me to die."

Sonic sat down next to the fox. He stared at them both in the mirror, and feigned a slight smile. Sonic tried to hide his emotions still, but it was slowly getting to him.

"I do love you Sonic," Dawn continued, "I just…"

"Save it," Sonic interrupted, not wanting to hear more on this, "I don't want to know that. The only thing I'm interested in now," he said, diverting his eyes away from Dawn's own upset face in the mirror, "Is what's going on with the Sol Emeralds?"

Dawn looked confused, "The Sol Emeralds?" she asked nervously.

"Five of them are gone," Sonic repeated, "Why was Eggman trying to destroy them?" he asked, his foot tapping the floor as he sat there.

"I don't know," Dawn answered.

"Well what about the servers?"

"The what?"

"Eggman said about servers of Sol, as did Tikal and…"

Dawn interrupted him abruptly. Her voice was now deeper, "You weren't to figure it out Sonic," she said maniacally, "You're not supposed to be asking these questions. You should just accept the way things are for you now. You should just accept how life is. We made it all you wanted, gave you everything you'd dreamed of, all you had to do was close your eyes, and go along with it. The other six did, or they will rather."

Sonic was taken aback by this. The sudden change in Dawn's attitude and voice was unnerving. He'd heard it before now. Twice; once from the bee, Tikal, and once from the doctor Pin. The confusion returned to Sonic's head, and he began to wonder how it was all connected. Sonic asked her to explain more, but Dawn was tight lipped, merely repeating what she had already said.

"But I can't accept this," Sonic said, "For this is not how anything is supposed to be. I don't know who you think you are," Sonic said, suddenly convinced this wasn't the Dawn he knew, "But this is not how things should be. You've messed with reality, you've changed it. I don't know how you did it, or why, but I will stop you!" the hedgehog yelled.

"No, you never could let it be as you want it now could you?" Dawn smirked, her voice still abnormal, "You're never happy, no matter what we did to you. This was in your interest Sonic. But if you're not interested then maybe we should change it once again. Maybe we shouldn't give you what you want; maybe we should give you everything you don't. Then will you be happy Sonic?"

"I have no idea what you're on about now." Sonic answered. He was getting frustrated by this, and wanted everything back to normal. He wouldn't admit it inside, but seeing Dawn like this was breaking his heart even more than having her flat out deny there relationship.

"I'm talking about this," Dawn said, producing a large orange Sol Emerald. Sonic's eyes widened, and he watched as Dawn pulled away part of her clothing, and opened a part of her artificial torso. Sonic realised what was going on, and leapt up to stop it. He saw two GUN agents run into the room to try and stop what was going on, but Dawn had already started the process.

"Help me!" Dawn suddenly yelled to Sonic in her normal voice, "I don't know what's going on, but help me Sonic!"

There was a resounding bright light, and the blue hedgehog forced his eyes closed. Dawn's screams faded out of existence, and Sonic slowly re-opened his eyes.

He was outside now, stood atop a hill, overlooking the city. Sonic didn't recognise this city at all. It was a highly technological city, very futuristic in design, and Sonic could see things normally reserved for science fiction films. Hover cars roamed the streets, robots wandered around amongst both humans and anthros, neither considering the other a threat.

The part that threw Sonic most though was what he read on the side of a weather blimp. "Have a nice day," it read, "From the world's glorious leader, Doctor Eggman."


	18. Lonely Home

_After a while I__'__d found myself slowly getting used to the idea of nothing making sense. Or, I would__'__ve, if I just could get a few more seconds to adjust each time. However this was a jump too far. Eggman ruling the world? I couldn__'__t imagine how that happened seeing as I saw him die myself. Unfortunately for me I didn__'__t recognise anything anymore, and was very lost._

Twenty minutes had passed since Sonic found himself outside. He didn't have any idea what to do at this point, and had no bearings. The device on his wrist had disappeared at the same time he'd found himself here, and Sonic was stumped for any sense of direction. He eventually passed a library, and assumed he might get a few answers in there.

"Err Hi," Sonic said quietly, making to the counter.

"Hello sir," the robot greeted the hedgehog, "How can I help you?"

Sonic looked at the small robot, and fought against his instinct to destroy it, "This is going to sound silly, but where am I?"

The robot obliged, "You are in the central library of Eggmanland city Phi Two."

Sonic was taken aback by the sheer underwhelming amount of information he had just been given, "Can you tell me anything more?"

"Yes I can," The robot replied, "What would you like to know?"

"Do you have an address book?" Sonic asked, "And a map?"

"Certainly sir," The robot replied, the sensors in what Sonic assumed were its eyes swivelled. From underneath the desk it produced a couple of books, the first a phone book, the second a map book.

Sonic took them, and sat down to search them himself. He didn't trust the robot, the Eggman insignia Sonic had noticed on the top of the droids head made him wary of saying anything more. The hedgehog scanned through the books, first noticing where he was in the atlas. He then began quickly flipping through the phone book, and after several seconds he found the address of what he believed to be Amy.

"Two hundred miles away?" Sonic said, as he found the address in the atlas. "Man I really got thrown far away this time. Ah well, that's only a 20 minute run," he smirked.

Not content, Sonic pulled up the address for Tails. Unfortunately Dawn wasn't listed, but he also found a listing for himself. It was close to where the rest of the addresses where, and Sonic realised that was obviously where he lived. Tearing the page from the atlas, he took made a note of the addresses, and fled out the library before the robot had even noticed what the hedgehog had done.

The run was largely uneventful. Despite this apparently being Eggmanland, there was very little in the way of weapons or traps. Sonic hated to admit it as he ran through, but as he looked amidst all the vehicles, skyscrapers, and how everyone was behaving within the city, that this city was almost utopian.

One thing that did puzzle Sonic as he ran was just how far the city stretched. He stopped briefly to take in a road name, and checked against his map. He'd already travelled over a hundred miles and yet the city had never stopped. Sure the areas had changed from suburban skyscrapers, to shopping districts, to office blocks, but the actual city had never receded into countryside in all this time.

Sonic eventually found himself at his location. He stopped at a sign saying Eggmanland city Phi Seven. This was a suburban district, about four miles square in size, and still filled with assorted skyscrapers. There was the odd tree, or patch of grass, but even they were uniform. Everything about the city struck Sonic as artificial, and he didn't want to stay here any longer than he had to.

Sonic had been thinking; if what Dawn had said before she'd destroyed the sixth Sol emerald was true; then this was a version of reality he would hate. Sonic didn't quite understand what she had meant by this looking around, but considering Eggman was in charge, something had to be wrong. He didn't want to think what, even considering it made his spines stand on end.

After a bit of searching Sonic found himself outside of what was his own house. It was another skyscraper, and Sonic looked amongst all the names, seeing his own on the seventh floor. He opened the door, and as it slid open he found himself in a narrow room. Sonic figured this must be an elevator, and began searching for the button up.

"Now how do you get to floor seven?" Sonic asked aloud failing to find any form of controls for the lift.

"Floor seven," an electronic voice said, as the door closed. The hedgehog heard a quiet whirring, and felt the lift ascend. Sonic tapped his foot annoyed. Even this lift was slow. Lifts had always been to slow for Sonic, and even now his impatience was shining through, in spite of everything.

Stepping out of the lift, Sonic looked around him. He had come out into a narrow corridor, with doors either side. The corridor was grey and basic; with plant pots sat either side of each door. They were all near identical looking, and this continued to bug Sonic. He walked along, eventually finding the flat that was apparently his.

The hedgehog suddenly realised he had no way to actually get inside the building. Sonic looked around, before noticing a small fingerprint lock next to the door. The hedgehog slid his glove off, and placed a finger on the scanner. There was a quiet beep, and a small green light lit up on the device, and the door slid open.

Sonic walked inside. The place was a tip. But for now that didn't matter. Sonic needed to get his bearings, and he figured he had more clues to his life as it was supposed to be now, than he would have if he confronted anyone else straight off. Sonic reasoned that if this was a world ruled by Eggman, there would be no way of telling what the scientist would try next.

Sitting on a green sofa, Sonic looked around. There wasn't anything that struck him as immediately out of place. It was a conventional flat, full of things Sonic would have liked. There was a games console hooked up to a TV and a reasonable sized pile of games. Next to that a stereo with lots of CD's, and there was a computer near to that. Sonic thought about looking on the computer, before realising he didn't actually know what he was after.

"What do I do now?" Sonic asked himself. With the world under Eggman's control, Dawn defecting to his side, and everything else so far out of whack, Sonic had no idea where to begin. Sonic sighed loudly and laid on the sofa, staring at the ceiling. He closed his eyes, and tried to take a moment to re-gather his thoughts and focus his priorities. Sonic had to fix reality, he knew this. Whatever doubt he had about his sanity before had slipped away now the world was being run by Eggman.

Unfortunately, all the reality warping and general chasing after leads had left Sonic knackered, and within ten minutes he was out cold, dreaming of chilli dogs and two robots, one a large chicken, the other a green multi-drilled tank.

"I'm out, leave a message after the tone," Sonic's voice said on his answering machine.

"Sonic," Dawn's voice said, "Please pick up the phone. I really want to talk to you. I miss you Sonic."


	19. Yelping Help

_I couldn__'__t get my head around it. Not only was Eggman ruler of the world, but the world he ruled seemed to work. In all the years myself and Dawn had spent fighting against Eggman and for all I knew of him, I never expected him to be capable of being a benevolent or fair ruler. He always gloated about how everyone would bow to his rule, and how everyone would be robots to his command, so seeing it now, I had to wonder what Eggman thought of his empire._

Sonic awoke groggily. His sofa had forced him to sleep with his neck twisted, and the dull ache he found himself, left the hedgehog cursing. Sonic looked at his clock, but a time of eleven ninety six didn't make sense. As far as Sonic knew it, there were only eighty minutes an hour. Sonic was baffled and began searching for a window. He looked around; eventually spotting what looked like blinds. Wandering over the hedgehog fiddled with it aimless, not having a clue on how to get it open.

"Come on open!" Sonic screamed in frustration, "How on Earth do you open this thing?" he shrieked angrily.

A high pitched voice came from behind Sonic startling him, "To open the window, press the square button on the controller."

Sonic looked to the voice. It appeared to be a small red robot, flying with a propeller on its head. It stared at Sonic; a vaguely creepy, yet generally pleasant smile upon its face.

"What are you?" Sonic asked, pressing a button on the controller as advised.

"My names Omochao," the robot said, as the blind slid open, "And I'm here to help you whenever you get stuck. Alternatively you can look in the manual."

"Pfft, nobody reads those things anymore," Sonic muttered sarcastically, "But that still doesn't answer what you are."

"My names Omochao," the robot repeated, "And I'm here to he-"

"Yeah yeah," Sonic said, "I heard you the first time. Tell me something useful."

"What do you want to know?"

Sonic stared blankly. Despite having something with him that could give him answers, he had no idea what to ask first. The hedgehog looked at Omochao, then looked at the addresses he'd noted down, "Can you help me get to these places?" he asked.

"Of course," the robot said, smiling in a way which Sonic still found unnerving.

"But can you keep up?" Sonic smirked, as he blasted quickly across the room and out the door.

Much to Sonic's annoyance at first, the robot was indeed able to follow Sonic's pace. However, despite his annoyance about the robot, the robot was indeed helpful, and Sonic soon found himself stood outside of what he'd noted to be Tails' building.

"Hello," the fox said, opening the door.

Sonic had to fight back his relief at seeing Tails alive, and found himself momentarily lost for words, "Hey," he eventually said, "Can we talk?"

The fox nodded, and let Sonic into his home. It looked identical to Sonic's in terms of size and shape, but was decorated very differently, and full of much more technical equipment. Sonic sat down in an armchair opposite Tails in another. He hesitated as he spoke, "Tails," Sonic began, "Errm, I don't know how to say this…"

"If it's about Dawn," Tails cut in, "I don't want to hear it. I know you and her are going through some very rough times, but I don't want to hear it. She's my sister Sonic; I have to keep my eye on her."

Sonic was taken aback. In one sense he was relieved to know Dawn was alright here, but on the other, he was surprised to learn Dawn and Tails were related. Despite how nothing seemed right with anything anymore, this revelation still stunned the hedgehog.

"Err; actually it has nothing to do with her," Sonic said, trying to hide his bafflement, "Tails, what if I said nothing was right about how things are?"

"How do you mean?" the fox asked curious.

"I mean the world, maybe even the universe," Sonic paused, "Isn't right, and shouldn't be as it is."

"What makes you say that?"

"Look around you," Sonic said sarcastically.

"I don't see a problem," Tails answered, "The world is at peace, people are free to do what they want, there's plenty of food, and we have everything done for free. Technology is moving at a sufficient rate, and we've got most known diseases to be fully treatable. Even the controversial 'become a robot' option Eggman gave us has once again proved to be a success."

"You're not a robot are you?" Sonic said, mostly in sarcasm.

"Not yet, though I've considered it to be honest."

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "Why would you want to be a robot?!"

"To better interface with the newest technology of course," Tails answered, "With technology improving every day, us scientists need to keep up to date with the improvements, and if robotification is how to do it, then it's what I'll have to do."

"Anyway," Sonic said, trying to get back to his point, "I don't think all is well with the world."

Tails asked for examples, and Sonic found himself telling Tails everything that had happened so far. Unlike his earlier attempt which had caused Tails to knock him out, and have him institutionalised, this attempt appeared to be passing water, although Tails remained sceptical throughout, noting the unlikelihood of several points, and generally find it hard to accept the idea that Eggman was a bad person.

"I'm sorry Sonic," Tails said, "But it sounds more like you've lost it a bit than reality is changed," Tails said bluntly, "Though if I wasn't aware of reality changing I would say that, but either way Sonic, I just find your claims a bit far fetched. I know you're a friend, which is exactly why I'm not going to say anything about this to anyone, but I can't buy into your story. If you had some proof, then maybe, but how can you prove the entirety of reality is a lie?"

"I-I can't," Sonic stuttered, his glance sinking to the floor, "I just needed you to believe me, to trust me when I said it."

"I'm a scientist," Tails replied, "I can't accept anything without proof. You might be right, but to me, in my position, you're not, and I'm sorry."

"Fine," the hedgehog said, "Some help you are," he muttered as he left Tails' building.

Sonic found himself considering what Tails had said. He had no proof that he was right, even though he knew he was. So far the only ones who believed him were all dead. Even Eggman had died, though Sonic was convinced now that that hadn't happened. Sonic began to wonder, was Eggman working with GUN, or was it just Knuckles? The thought alone of Knuckles being a member of GUN struck him as odd.

Even odder was the sudden thought Sonic had of Knuckles being a guardian of the Sol Emeralds. Sonic shook his head, and ignored it, making sense with himself that that was the responsibility of Rouge.


	20. Loose Truths

_I know I must__'__ve seemed a right jerk as I left Tails__'__ that day, but I didn__'__t have the time to wait around and make sure he was alright. I had to set the world free from Eggman__'__s control, and the sooner I managed that, the better. Unfortunately, with the world in his grasp, taking on Eggman was not going to be easy. I also had no idea who I could turn to. If Tails wasn__'__t going to help, then there was no telling who would._

After a bit of wandering, Sonic found himself at Amy's. She told him the same, something he took as a real low blow considering in his mind she shouldn't even exist.

"Look," Amy said, with a lot of concern in her voice, "We know how it's been with you and Dawn, and we know it's taken its toll on you, but you can't honestly expect me to believe that; A, there was once two of you. B, that you killed Eggman, and C, that you were once my husband…"

"You're husband?" Sonic interrupted.

"Shadow," Amy sighed, annoyed with the story she was hearing.

Sonic did a double take for a moment. Someone like Amy, with someone as glum as Shadow, he thought. To him, that pairing made no sense at all. Still, Sonic had to admit that he was relieved not to be paired with Amy either.

"Where is Shadow anyway?" Sonic asked.

"At work," Amy replied.

"At GUN yeah?"

"GUN?" Amy asked, "What's that? Shadow works for the Cybernetics division of the Eggman robotics company. Chrome Gadgets, specifically."

With that Sonic left the building. An idea had suddenly struck him. If he had become Shadow, then maybe Shadow had become him during that period. Was it possible that Shadow could remember this any of this, Sonic wondered.

He didn't have to wonder long. No sooner than he left the building, when Shadow turned up. Sonic stopped the black hedgehog before he could get inside.

"What do you want?" Shadow sneered.

"I know this is going to sound completely absurd, but does anything seem odd?"

"You mean that you and your wife aren't together, or do you mean the fact that you have a wife in the first place?" Shadow asked sarcastically.

"No, I mean things like Eggman being in charge of the world, or lots of other things that don't make sense," Sonic said, struggling to pick specific examples.

"Like me looking like you for about two days?" Shadow answered.

Sonic was taken aback by this, "So you've noticed reality changing?"

"About six times," Shadow replied.

"And you didn't think to say anything?"

"Why bother? It's not like anybody can stop them."

"Them?" Sonic said in shock, "You know what's going on here?"

"Not everything," Shadow said, "But obviously more than you do."

Sonic lost control at this. Before he could even think how to reply, impulse had already caused his fist to make contact with the side of the black hedgehogs jaw. Shadow countered with a kick to Sonic's peach stomach, winding the hedgehog in the process.

Sonic landed on the concrete bellow. Without a moments hesitation, Sonic curled himself into a ball as he had done thousands of times before, and released himself forwards towards his black doppelganger. Shadow had other ideas and jumped clean over Sonic's spinning body.

"Who's doing this?" Sonic yelled in anger, as he stood facing Shadow. Sonic's arm shot forwards.

"You don't want to know." Shadow replied, catching Sonic's arm; twisting it.

"Tell me!" Sonic demanded; his own body spinning out of Shadow's hand twist. This propelled the blue hedgehog upwards, and Sonic carefully aimed himself to land on the other hedgehog bellow.

Shadow curled himself up, and began to rev himself on the spot. As Sonic landed, Shadow leaped into the air, sending Sonic flying. "Sol Spear!" Shadow yelled, as several beams of light ejected from the black hedgehog's body and all collided with Sonic as he landed on the ground. "That's for all the time I had to spend perfectly mimicking you.

The black hedgehog stood over Sonic's body. "It's all been very simple Sonic. All we had to do was live our lives in another reality. We were all analysed, all the servers. All we had to do was go along with it. Then that stupid Robotnik messed it up."

"What are you on about Shadow?" Sonic asked, intrigued by Shadow's speech.

"You're not any smarter here than you were before I see," Shadow grinned, "It's all very simple Sonic. The emeralds split, reality falls apart. However reality can remake itself, to the whim of whoever breaks the last of them. Looking around I'd say Robotnik, sorry Eggman, succeeded in breaking the last of the Sol Emeralds."

"There should be two left," Sonic protested, not wanting to believe reality now existed in Eggman's image, "Besides, Dawn destroyed the last one."

"You mean Dawn, the robot Dawn?" Shadow asked, "The one who betrayed you to Eggman, and the one who was part robot?"

Sonic found himself replaying over what Dawn had said. The words, 'to spite you' ran through his mind over and over. Was it possible that she had created this world?

Shadow had had enough of the silence, "get a grip on yourself Sonic," Shadow said, "Dawn's not even real anyway. Of everything I can remember of the real reality, from the Ark, to the incident with Mephilles, and even the stuff with Maria," Shadow paused, "Dawn is not once present."

"And how do you know what is and what isn't real?" Sonic asked, fed up of listening to Shadow tell him what should and shouldn't be.

"Because," Shadow spat, "I was made as the ultimate life form, and part of that included the ability to remember everything. Good and bad, I remember it all. That includes Tails being eight in reality, as well as him being twenty seven in reality."

"You can?" Sonic said, pleased to have finally found someone who can help him, "And you can help me?"

"Why?" Shadow sneered cruelly, "Have you not seen how peaceful the world is now? There's no war, no famine, no violence. This is the perfect vision of reality Gerald sought to create, and while the means of getting it are indeed dubious, and while it is Eggman in charge, things are fine now. Why would I want to ruin that?"

Sonic didn't have an answer. He wanted to argue point blank that Eggman would ruin it, but he couldn't find any decent argument to hang on to. He also couldn't accept it anymore. After everything he had lost all grasp on what was, and what wasn't real, and the only person who could tell him was refusing to help.


	21. Sleuthed Truths

_Shadow disappeared inside his house after telling me he wouldn__'__t help. Despite persistent pleas, he wouldn__'__t change his mind, and eventually I abandoned the idea of getting his assistance. However, at least now I knew I was up against something, even if I wasn__'__t sure what. My next move however, was beyond me. I wanted to get to the bottom of this, but the only other person who seemed to have any knowledge was Eggman, and something told me he wouldn__'__t co-operate._

Sonic stared at his surroundings for several seconds. The identikit nature of this city had gotten him lost. His map had also lead him wrong on a couple of occasions, and the little robot that was helping him had fled once he'd got to Amy's. Sonic was still shocked by the idea of Amy and Shadow being together, for some reason part of his brain believed she would want him. Then he remembered that just a couple of days ago they were engaged, and not him and Dawn.

"Dawn!" Sonic suddenly clicked, "Man, how could I forget about her in all this?" he asked rhetorically.

It took about an hour for Sonic to find his bearings, and even longer for Sonic to track down where Dawn currently was. He'd rung around Tails' house for info, and he'd not said a word. It was Knuckles who spilled the beans in the end, and only because she was mad that Sonic had interrupted her during a jewel heist.

Nevertheless, it was dark when Sonic finally got to Dawn. She had agreed to meet him in a park. Sonic couldn't believe the park when he got there; he'd never seen a park quite so industrial looking. Part of him knew this was correct, but he was expecting a lot more trees, than the few trees artificially arranged in perfectly square form, with cubes cut into their tops.

"Sonic," Dawn said, as she spotted the hedgehog, "I really am sorry for everything."

Sonic had no idea what it was she was supposed to be apologising for. Until she defected, she had done nothing wrong, and Sonic couldn't even pinpoint the moment Dawn defected. However, as things were now, that was a moot point. "No, I'm sorry too," Sonic said, trying to seem vague until he could get all the details.

"But I know you didn't want me to do it, I know how opposed you were to the robotics program." Dawn replied.

Sonic mentally chuckled, 'Figures,' he thought.

"I had to Sonic," Dawn said, "There was no choice."

"Just tell me why?" Sonic snapped, still unsure how he should be replying to this Dawn.

"Because I would've died otherwise," Dawn stressed.

Sonic was taken aback by this. Despite her robotic face, Sonic could see she was being serious. He went to hug her, but was taken aback by the newfound coldness of her body. Sonic struggled to picture Dawn like this, but he didn't want to say anything about her.

"Dawn, this is going to sound like a really stupid question," Sonic said, trying to change the subject, "but, err, can I…"

Sonic didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. He was interrupted by an extremely angry pink hedgehog carrying a crossbow in one arm. "What do you think you're doing starting fights with my Shadow?" Amy yelled.

"What?" Dawn enquired.

"That Blue Blur of yours decided to attack Shadow!" Amy answered, glaring at Sonic.

"Is this true Sonic?" Dawn asked.

Sonic continued to divert her robotic gaze. He couldn't bring himself to lie to her, yet he didn't want her to know the truth.

"Sonic?" Dawn said concern in her voice.

Sonic sighed, "I can explain…"

"Save it Sonic," Dawn replied, "I thought you'd changed."

"But Dawn," Sonic said, as Dawn began to run off, "hey wait," he replied getting up. The hedgehog glared at Amy, "Thanks a bunch you," he spat angrily, before running after Dawn.

Sonic's speed meant he caught up to Dawn very quickly. Dawn however kept running, her new enhancements making her top speed much quicker than it used to be. Not that Sonic had any trouble keeping up; this was a gentle pace to him.

"Dawn," Sonic said, "Let me explain."

Dawn leapt over a park bench and made for the highway. She leapt up into the air over a couple of hover cars. "I don't care Sonic, I thought you'd stopped."

"I don't know what you're on about," Sonic replied, jumping over the same two cars, and darting around a third. He leapt onto a support beam, and with a flip leapt off, landing in front of Dawn. "Look, this is going to sound ridiculous," he continued. Before he could finish Dawn had pushed him out of the way. This caught the hedgehog by surprise and he landed with a thud against the cold steel.

Dawn continued running, "Don't you get it Sonic? We're over now. You've made that clear."

"But Dawn," Sonic said, as he got up. Running along the highway's supports he continued, "I don't even know what you're on about." Sonic slid underneath a road sign, "I think I'm loosing it here Dawn," Sonic admitted, grabbing Dawn by the arm, as she ran past a hover lorry. It skidded and swerved around the hedgehog and the robot as the pair of them stopped.

Dawn didn't have time to look at Sonic to see if he was telling the truth. All the traffic made that impossible. Instead she made a run for the edge of the highway. Sonic followed hoping he could explain himself.

"You've got one chance to explain yourself Sonic!" she yelled, clearly more annoyed than ever.

"Okay," the blue hedgehog said, his pulse now racing with a sudden attack of nerves. This surprised the hedgehog, he had never been nervous about talking to Dawn before.

"I'm waiting," Dawn said, her arms crossed, and her foot tapping against the floor impatiently.

"I don't really know how to ask this," Sonic slowly said, "But what do you know about the Sol Emeralds?"

"Not much," Dawn replied, "Why?"

"I think they're messing with my mind," Sonic said, unsure of himself.

"How do you mean?"

"It was Shadow earlier," Sonic explained, "He made me think you weren't real."

Dawn looked baffled, "He… what?"

"Exactly," Sonic answered, "But you're here now, so he must be out of his mind."

"But that doesn't explain why you're loosing it?"

"Look, Dawn," Sonic said, his eyes now gazing at his feet, "Two days ago I thought I saw you as a cyborg. You were a prisoner in a government facility and I was…"

"Stop talking Sonic," Dawn said coldly.

"But I need to…"

"Sonic, stop talking. I know what you want to say, and I don't want you to say it." Dawn said anxiously.

"But you don-"

"Yes, I do," Dawn said slowly, "You want to tell me about how the destruction of the rubies," Dawn said, winking at the hedgehog, "is causing certain instabilities, including the bringing back from the dead, and the cloning of individuality, and how nobody seems to know of it bar you."

"Why are you talking funny?" Sonic said, puzzled.

"Because," Dawn sighed, "In this, part of me is one of your enemies."


	22. Igpay Atinlay

_I__'__d gotten nowhere with anyone. Of everyone I asked, everyone either didn__'__t know, didn__'__t want to know, or knew but were refusing to help. I for one was getting sick of it. So many people had turned me away that I was going to do everything to get people on side. If that meant staying here with Dawn until she agreed to co-operate, then so be it._

Sonic looked at Dawn with a puzzled look on his face. "Dawn," he mused, "What are you saying?"

"The Aoschay, and the onstersmay thereof," Dawn answered.

"What?" Sonic said, scratching his head.

"It's pig Latin," Dawn answered, "I can't say it, otherwise they will hear that I'm helping you."

"Who?" Sonic said.

"Them," Dawn replied, "Now Sonic, you have to leave me alone. Go!"

"I can't," Sonic moaned, "Not until you explain what's going on."

"It's very simple Sonic," Dawn said very anxiously "They're tracking me. When I say certain words they appear, and they stop me. I need to help you get to the truth Sonic; you're the only one who can fix reality to how it should be."

"So it is wrong?" Sonic asked, alarmed.

"Yes," Dawn said, "And the rubies," she continued winking, "are what's causing it. But they also hold it together. So long as there are two, reality is stable, but done by a server, destroying them stops a self destruct. Sonic, you have to get the NO-Argh!" Dawn screamed.

Sonic leapt forwards for concern but found himself helpless but to watch her body contort as her hands clutched for her metallic head. She began screaming of the voices, and Sonic was given a moment of déjà vu as she did, yet he shrugged it off as she buckled to her knees. He stepped away as a new voice came forth.

"Sorry to interrupt, dear Sonic," came the sinister voice of Eggman from the speaker unit at the front of Dawn's robotic face, "Been a while hasn't it?"

"Eggman!" Sonic yelled, "Stop this now." I know you know realities messed up!"

"Messed up?" Eggman taunted, "Have you seen the world Sonic? It's perfect. Everything is absolutely perfect, and I'm the one running the show. There is nothing messed up with reality if you ask me, you worthless spine-ball."

Sonic didn't have an answer for this. He hated to think that reality was actually perfect with Eggman in charge. Even if this was all an adjustment made by the scientist himself, he refused to accept that it was ever possible for Eggmanland to be a utopian dream.

"You see dear Sonic," Eggman continued, forcing Dawn to perform the body language, "The Monsters of Chaos, as Dawn fears, are nothing to you or me. Ironic, we're both severs, well you are, and I used to be."

Sonic couldn't see it, but he was sure Eggman was grinning like a lunatic right now. "What do you mean Egghead?" he asked more in anger than for wanting to know.

"It's simple really," Eggman said nonchalantly, "If the monsters have there way, I get to rule the world. I get what I want, they get what they want. Even Shadow gets rewarded for helping me," Eggman said, as Dawn's body lurched forward, "And all I have to do to guarantee it," he laughed maniacally, "is kill the prime Server of Chaos, which is you dear Sonic. And what better weapon to kill you with, than the one person you love in this world," he said, as a pair of small machine guns popped up from the wrists of Dawn.

Sonic tensed up, ready to dodge the expected stream of bullets. His feet itched to move, but Sonic knew he had to pick his moment right; otherwise the guns would second guess where he was headed. Sonic had to wait for them to fire.

"But you see dear Sonic," Robotnik said, laughing hysterically, "In all the years I've been after you, I can finally kill you here and now. But that's not the best part. The beautiful thing is that the very person who is going to kill you," he laughed evilly, "Is the person you love most in this world. Of all the evil and twisted ways I could think to kill you, none seem more apt than watching you die by the hand of the one you love."

"You sick freak," Sonic said, realising what Eggman was saying.

"Actually," Eggman continued, "I'll go one better. Rather than having me talk to you, I'll let Dawn herself be the one talking, while I sit here and control her every move," Eggman finished, laughing as he ceased communications.

"Sonic," Dawn cried, "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Sonic replied.

There was a quiet whirring. The speed of the barrels got faster. After what seemed like hours, the bullets shot out, skirting along the ground where the blue hedgehog used to be standing. They followed the blur along the ground, and over a large billboard. Sonic was stood behind it, having leapt over it to avoid the fire.

"I don't want to be doing this," Dawn said in apology, and in a desperate plea for control.

"You've no choice my dear," Eggman said, talking through the speaker again.

The billboard was pushed forward. It collapsed, and from his control room, Robotnik had just enough time to register the sight of a speeding blue ball to move Dawn's metallic frame out of the way.

Sonic continued rolling. His body shot forwards at such a rate that he lost no momentum as he made contact with the highways side barrier. In a moment of instinct, Sonic grabbed for it, and pulled himself into the air, kicking off it with his foot to shoot his body back at Dawn. Colliding with her, he knocked her to the ground. He pinned her down.

"Give it up Egghead, You never could hit me," he taunted.

"I'm just getting warmed up," Eggman hissed back. With that the motors in Dawn's legs shot into life, and Sonic found himself flung off of the robot he loved. He landed with a thud, a few feet away, and Dawn's newly menacing body stood over him, one machine gun arm pointing at the hedgehog's head.

Sonic rolled away as another stream of bullets made contact with the soil that used to be beneath his feet.

"You're just making this more fun for me," Eggman sniggered, as Dawn's body continued to advance on the hedgehog's position, much against the wishes of the body's owner.

I'm just getting started," Sonic said, as he ran straight towards Dawn, chicaning around bullets.

Colliding with the robot, the hedgehog's body shot forwards. Both of them went flying into the path of an extremely large freight lorry. It skidded as best as it could, but the bend of the road merely caused the tail-end of the lorry to skid round sideways, and tip over onto where the robot and the hedgehog had landed.


	23. Freeway Melee

_I didn__'__t like doing this. Of all the people Eggman could__'__ve possibly chosen to attack me, Dawn was the one he _knew_ I wouldn__'__t fight against. But I had no choice. I still regret doing it, but me and Dawn fought, and I had to disable her at least, because there was no way Eggman was going to stop, making it a fight for my own survival. _

The hissing noise as the rear end of the lorry's anti-gravity unit continued to press upwards against the forces of gravity, and its newfound sideways momentum were unbearable. However, Sonic was far more concerned about getting out of its way than covering his ears. Grabbing at the wrist of Dawn, Sonic rolled very quickly out of the path of the falling trailer. The ground shook with the slam of the unit, and a load of machinery parts spilled out onto the highway, causing a mad rush for the break from the drivers on both directions.

Not that either the hedgehog or the robot could focus on this. Sonic was just relieved to have saved Dawn from death by freight container, while Dawn was still pleading with Eggman as he continued to pursue the blue hedgehog.

Another round of machine gun fire let loose, and Sonic was very lucky not to have been hit. The hedgehog listened for the pinging noise of bullets to stop before he moved from his position ducked behind the other side of the fallen trailer. As quickly as they fired they stopped, and Sonic took this as his chance. Leaping back over the trailer, Sonic tackled Dawn to the ground. The pair rolled along, both fighting the other for dominance. After several seconds Dawn once again kicked Sonic clear.

This time he was ready. Using the momentum, Sonic grabbed hold of a lamppost, and swung round it, before letting go. He flew through the air feet first, and kicked Dawn in the chest. The act caught Eggman off guard, and that allowed Sonic to knock Dawn onto her back. Without a moments hesitation he revved up, and released, his body acting like a buzz saw and severing her right hand.

Dawn let out a very loud scream of pain, and Sonic had to ignore his guilt for his actions. Forcing down his remorse, Sonic made for a run, leaping over the cars. He stood atop one and taunted Eggman to follow. Sonic knew he couldn't continue the fight here, the accident had caused a traffic jam, and the longer he stayed here, the more likely it would be there was a civilian casualty. Not that Sonic was too concerned. If he was honest with himself, Sonic was beginning to agree with something he had been told earlier.

A stray missile skimmed over Sonic's head. Turning round he saw Dawn, now complete with a rocket launcher crudely attached to where her right hand used to be. In his haste, Sonic had forgotten that Eggman would have probably been prepared for such an action. The hedgehog mentally kicked himself, and kept running, as his robotic girlfriend gave chase.

Sonic lead the pair off the highway. He watched as traffic continued to head for where he was, unaware that there would be delays. This was not a leisurely run for Sonic, even if he was telling Eggman the exact opposite. Missiles and machine gun fire hounded him throughout, and on more than one occasion Sonic found himself having to dodge falling debris, or jump over a hole that had suddenly been made in the floor.

The deeper Sonic ran into this city, the worse the smell got. From the outside it was just vaguely like old fish, but now, at the heart of a highly industrious landscape the air smelt so bad Sonic could taste the smog. He wasn't surprised as chimneys filled the skies with a thick black smoke, almost indistinguishable from the night sky itself. Sonic hadn't seen any traffic for a while, and figured this would be a safer place to take Dawn out.

Eggman's voice growled out of the speakers, mocking Sonic for fleeing. Sonic didn't say anything; he just waited for Dawn to appear. Sonic was already biding his time, hoping Dawn could take back control. The longer this went on though, the less likely it looked. Sonic sighed, realising he would have to fully disable Dawn.

There was a quiet whirring, causing Sonic looked up. Jumping to his right Sonic continued to seek escape from a rain of metal bullets, all of them pinging of the steel beneath his feet. Dawn was lowered down, and her assault against the hedgehog continued on foot, as Sonic found himself pinned down behind a cold yellow bulldozer.

Sonic didn't have a plan of attack; this was usually Dawn's area of strength. In all his years, he never once thought he would have to beat Dawn in combat. Even though this was a robot that fought with missiles not the magical porcupine Sonic knew from his childhood. Sonic found himself reminiscing, drawing on memories of when he was little, and used to go around to Dawn's house to watch _The Adventures of Silver the Hedgehog. _

Hearing the whooshing noise of another missile, the weary blue hedgehog ducked. It blew the top half of the bulldozer clean off, exposing much of the engine. Sonic leapt atop it, realising this might be his only chance to strike. Not having any idea where to aim for, he literally just threw himself at Dawn. Her body took the brunt of his weight, and the hedgehog fell at her feet. Eggman cackled, and pointed the machine gun arm at Sonic. The hedgehog had other ideas, and twisted his leg around Dawn, knocking her to the floor.

Sonic looked at the body of Dawn. "Forgive me," he said, as a tear rolled down his cheek. With great sadness, he leapt and curled as he had done a thousand times, and with the momentum he gained slammed hard atop Dawn's robotic head. Sonic always held back against robots, aware that there was someone, or something inside when Eggman made them. This time was different, and Sonic gave it a full force slam, like he would against Eggman himself.

As quickly as he collided with her head, he jumped off. The robot Dawn didn't get up. Sonic had succeeded in disabling her, the only way he could.

"Hmph," Eggman said, his voice badly distorted with static, "Looks like you won this one Sonic," he said bitterly.

"S-Sonic," Dawn stuttered.

"Yes Dawn?" Sonic said, kneeling beside her robotic body.

"I'm sorry Sonic."

"It's not your fault."

"Just tell me one thing," Dawn said slowly, "Why did you have to sleep with Sally?"

Sonic was hesitant. He had no idea who Sally was. Nevertheless, he knew what was going on, and he did not want to subject Dawn to that truth, "It was a mistake," he said sombrely, holding her cold body to his.

"I love you Sonic," Dawn said, her voice now quiet, as the once bright light from her eye sensors grew dimmer and dimmer.

"I love you too Dawn," Sonic said, holding back the tears.

Dawn's body finally gave up. The robotic eyes turned to black.

Sonic clutched at her body tightly, tears stinging his face bitterly. "I'll bring you back Dawn," he said quietly, "I promise you will."


	24. Request Dissection

_For the longest time I sat holding Dawn__'__s body. In everything, I had never imagined I would ever have to do this. If I hadn__'__t before, I vowed now to make Eggman pay for making me do that to her. But there were more important things now, and I had this niggling little feeling in the back of my mind that I could bring her back to life. Even if I had to destroy the reality of the Eggman Empire for it. While I didn__'__t know for certain, I was sure I could use Dawn__'__s body for this purpose. I just had to find out for sure._

Sonic stood resting on the door. He'd banged it several times impatiently, and was waiting for the houses owner to open it. However, three AM is not the appropriate time to be knocking on doors, and Sonic had to wait a while for Tails to register what exactly was going on in his sleep ridden state.

"Tails," Sonic said, suddenly realising what he was about to say, "Dawn's dead," he said as sympathetically as he could muster.

Tails immediately broke down crying. The fox retreated back into his house, and Sonic invited himself in. Sonic too was in a state, but he was too keen on his plan to let the full scale of what had happened sink in. The fox on the other hand spent several minutes with his face buried in his hands, crying over the though of the loss of his younger sister.

It took Tails several minutes to notice that Sonic had brought the body along with him. Tails' immediate reaction was one of anger, yelling at Sonic, and calling him a jerk, before Sonic told Tails he'd found the body outside. Tails still protested, and Sonic relented with an admission of how foolhardy and stupid it was to take a body without informing the authorities.

"So why did you bring it to me?" Tails asked, highly suspicious of Sonic. There conversation earlier, along with what Tails had heard from Amy, about the hedgehog's skirmish with Shadow had done Sonic no favours in his standing with Tails.

"Because I think I know how to bring her back to life," Sonic answered.

Tails looked at the hedgehog. "How on Earth would you go about that?" he said, his eyes giving Sonic a disbelieving glare.

Sonic was once again stumped for an answer. Tails hadn't believed his earlier explanations. "You'll just have to trust me," Sonic said.

"Is this you're theory that reality's messed up again?" Tails asked, "Because now is _really_ not the time to be suggesting that." he said, his tail twitching with anger.

"But this proves it, does it not?" Sonic asked.

"Sonic, I'm going to give you five seconds to explain what you mean by that, otherwise I'm calling the police," Tails said, severely annoyed not only by Sonic's newfound thoughts, but also his actions recently.

An idea came into the hedgehogs mind, "Tails, I'm not a technical genius like you are, but would a robotic body contain some kind of black box type device that would store the last few conversations?" he asked slowly.

Tails hesitated, "In theory," he replied, "But Sonic I…"

"Please, just look into it, it'll prove I'm right," Sonic interrupted.

"You're asking me to disassemble my sister." Tails said coldly.

"I just need to know something about the body, and I just need you to believe that something's wrong."

"But you want me to disassemble my own sister," Tails repeated in anger, "I find out she's dead, and the first thing you want me to do is dissect her. Before the authorities find out, just because you think reality is messed with."

"I know I sound crazy," Sonic said, grabbing Tails by the shoulder, and forcing eye contact with the fox, "But I would not ask you to do this unless I was one hundred and ten percent sure of this."

"Fine," Tails relented, "I'll take a look at the body. But if there's nothing, then I'm calling the cops, and I'm having you arrested Sonic. You do not do this!"

Tails slowly worked. His tiredness had gone, replaced by severe hurt and coffee. Sonic watched eagerly, hoping he was right in his assumptions. The fox hooked up a few wires into the circuitry of the body.

"Assuming the body's not too wrecked," Tails said, glaring at Sonic. Tails didn't know Sonic had done this, but he was still mad with the hedgehog. The fox looked to the body again and continued, "I should be able to access the last few recorded conversations. Assuming the memories not completely wrecked."

Sonic watched Tails get to work. He had watched Tails before, it was always impressive, if somewhat confusing to the hedgehog as to what he older friend was doing. Tails' brow creased up with the difficulty of the electronics' resistance. Eventually he cracked it, and the pair of them listened through the last few conversations.

"I-I can't believe it," Tails said, "You killed her."

"Tails, I'm sorry, I had no choice," Sonic said, feeling his eyes tear up again.

"You didn't need to kill her," Tails spat.

"It was her or me thanks to Eggman," Sonic replied.

"Just tell me what your plan is to get her back," Tails growled, diverting the subject slightly.

"In her body," Sonic said, trying to stay calm, "There's some sort of compressor, or there was."

"You mean the device registered as the NOCC?"

Sonic eyes lit up at the term, "It is still there then?"

Tails nodded, and Sonic asked if it was still functional. Again Tails nodded, and asked why.

"Because that's the device that destroys Sol Emeralds and our ticket to getting Dawn back. If you can get it working, I'll get us a Sol Emerald, and we'll have Dawn back." Sonic said, deciding it might not be an idea to mention his intentions to get rid of Eggman's Empire.

Sonic felt a paw make contact with his cheek. "That's for everything you put Dawn through before you killed her," Tails said angrily.

"I deserved that," Sonic said, his eyes looking at the ground.

"Too right you did," Tails sneered, "And if your plan fails, you can guarantee you'll be in jail."

"I'll turn myself in," Sonic replied slowly. Sonic knew how bad his actions had been lately, and even though he knew why he was doing them, the guilt he had wasn't easy to get rid of.

"So where are you going to get a Sol Emerald from?" Tails asked, trying not to let his anger get the better of him again.

"Who do we know who always seems to have one?" the hedgehog replied, a knowing glint in his eye.


	25. Emerald Withheld

_Tails stayed up the rest of the night disassembling Dawn__'__s body. I felt sick watching him do that, and I couldn__'__t even begin to imagine how he felt. His constant swearing whenever anything went wrong, often aimed at myself, only helped to remind me of what was done. Nevertheless Tails slowly came round to my way of thinking, and before too long we had a working NOCC, and were headed back to Amy__'__s building to obtain an emerald from Shadow._

It was light when the hedgehog and the fox left. They took a slow walk, Sonic fully aware that Tails had no way of keeping up with him if he got into any form of run. Although Amy only lived three blocks away, the walk along the autumnal morning's street was a slow one. Tails was unresponsive to anything Sonic said, and Sonic knew he was only here on an idle curiosity. Sonic thanked his lucky stars that Tails had been curious, otherwise he would've been locked up as a murderer.

That's not to say Sonic wasn't on edge when a police hover car passed them. He wasn't normally one to balk at the sight of an authority figure, but he also wasn't normally a murderer. Sonic shook his head as the car continued on its way its sirens still silent.

Tails was the one who stood and knocked at Amy's pink door. Sonic stood around the corner, and out of site. They had agreed Tails would simply ask for it first, to try and avoid yet another skirmish. Sonic watched from behind a couple of surprisingly clean dustbins. The fox stood at the door patiently, clutching the silver NOCC in his left paw.

The door swing open, and Amy looked to the fox. "Oh, Tails," She said somewhat surprised; her arms trying to keep her gown closed, "What are you doing here?"

"Actually I'm after Shadow," he said, slightly bashfully. Sonic watched on, and even he could notice from his distance that Tails was blushing nervously.

Amy's slender frame disappeared from the doorway, and was quickly replaced by that of a scowling black hedgehog. It was fairly obvious that Shadow was not a morning person, his fur still all ruffled from a nights sleep.

"What do you want?" The hedgehog asked, with no sense of patience.

The fox gulped slightly, his foot shuffling on the brick slab, "I need a Sol Emerald, to test this device, and I wondered if you could help me find one."

"What makes you think I would help?" Shadow asked only semi interested.

Tails was caught off guard. Lying was not his specialty, "B-because I want to test a new engine type," he stuttered, "A-and the E-emerald would be a perfect conduit for extreme's in power loads for my new prototype," he said, motioning towards the device in his left hand.

Sonic slapped his forehead as he saw Shadow recognise the device and slam the door on Tails' face. The blue hedgehog had even told Tails not to show Shadow the device, as he would recognise it. Nevertheless, Sonic didn't berate his canine friend upon being told the results.

"Looks like it's time for plan B then," Sonic grinned.

"Plan B?" Tails asked hesitantly, not knowing what plan B actually was.

"We break in and take the one Shadow has," Sonic said confidently, already stretching his legs ready for such a mission.

"I suggest we wait," Tails replied, really not comfortable with the idea of breaking an entering.

"What for?" Sonic said, now all too eager to get in there and wipe the smug smile off Shadow's face. The hedgehog could picture it now, Shadow's surprise at the act, and watching Amy panic and swing that hammer of hers. Sonic lost his train of thought here, since when did Amy use a hammer?

"For Shadow to leave for work?" Tails said nervously.

"Nuts to that," Sonic replied quickly, "I'm sick of waiting. I've been waiting to get proactive for twenty four chapters and I…"

"Chapters?" Tails asked in confusion.

"I mean hours," Sonic answered bitterly, "I've been waiting too long either way. It's time to take some action. Besides, Shadow has seen the NOCC, he knows what it is, and I'll bet he knows we're both here. So all we can do now is go in there, grab the emerald, and restore reality how it should be."

"I guess you're right," Tails hesitantly said.

That was all the confirmation Sonic needed. Tails watched a trail of blue run towards the front door, then saw the fractured splinters of pink wood flying in all directions as the door buckled under the force of having a hedgehog slam into it at speeds normally associated with fighter planes. Tails followed behind, hoping to stop Sonic from doing anything too drastic.

"What on Earth do you think you're doing Sonic!?" Amy yelled as the blue hedgehog leapt straight for the black one. Amy watched as Sonic punched Shadow several times in the face.

"Hand over that damn emerald Shadow!" Sonic roared angrily. Sonic had had enough of this. He didn't want to play games anymore, "I know you've got one, and I know you know what I intend to do with it, so just hand it over, and let us fix reality."

Shadow grabbed for an umbrella that had been knocked over in Sonic's entrance. The fabric tore easily against the hedgehog, but the brunt of the wood was enough to force the blue hedgehog off of Shadow. "I'll never hand it over," Shadow smirked, "Reality is fine, now just accept it already, and stop making it worse for everyone."

"Shadow?" Amy said accusingly, "What are you on about?" she asked, more confused about this than why Sonic had chosen to interrupt breakfast to start a fight with her husband.

Sonic jumped clear of Shadow's attempt for a low kick, and using a lampshade as a hand hold, the blue hedgehog flung his entire body towards Shadow. The black hedgehog fell backwards, winded from the force of the spin attack.

Tails said nothing, but he watched. He saw Shadow pick up a small foot stool, and try to use that as a weapon against Sonic, clubbing the hedgehog twice before the stool broke, leaving Shadow with nothing in his hands but two short wooden sticks. Out of the corner of his eye, Tails noticed something purple shimmer in the morning light. Very cautiously, he made his way towards it.

Amy recognised what Tails was up to as Sonic grabbed Shadow by the throat and tried to choke the black hedgehog unconscious. Shadow responded in kind by biting down firmly on Sonics peach arms. The hedgehog yelped in agony, and pushed Shadow away towards Tails. Tails quickly moved out of the path and closer to his goal.

"Sonic," Tails yelled, excitedly, "I think I found it, he said, as he picked up a shiny purple Sol Emerald that was hidden behind some old trinkets on a cabinet.

"Drop it!" Amy yelled, her crossbow pointing straight at Tails. The fox dutifully obliged, dropping both the Emerald and the NOCC.

Both hedgehogs recognised the importance of what had happened. The pair of them both raced for Tails, pushing all manner of former living room furniture rubble out of the way to get to the emerald and the machine. Though it only took a second to get from there positions to where Tails was stood, it was a very long second for both of them.

"Got it!" Sonic cheered, as he scooped up the purple emerald.

"That'll stop you," Shadow smirked, as he grabbed the NOCC off the floor.

Both hedgehogs then made a dash for each other, Tails ducking hastily out of the way to avoid the fight, as both hedgehogs wanted nothing more than to hold onto both items; Sonic to change reality, and Shadow to stop Sonic from doing just that.

Shadow swung for Sonic, and Sonic did the same. Both managed to dodge in time to not feel the other hedgehog connect. This was something Sonic was counting on as he lowered his right arm at the last second to make a grab for the emerald. Shadow recognised this, and pulled it away. Sonic had other ideas, and with the pair of them in such close proximity, Sonic leapt as he had done a million times before, and curled into a ball.

The shape of which, when in such proximity to the black hedgehog caused said hedgehog to be sent flying as Sonic had taken it upon himself to hold Shadows right arm as he spun. The additional weight forced the jump to be cut short of it's full height, but was enough to fling Shadow apart from the NOCC, and send the black hedgehog shattering through a glass cabinet

Sonic swooped for the NOCC's landing place on the green carpet. "Goodbye forever Eggmanland," he said, preparing the device.

"Not so fast," Shadow said, getting to his feet, and tackling the blue hedgehog to the floor. Everyone could only watch as a bright white light shone from the device that both Sonic and Shadow were clutching, as reality collapsed around them.


	26. Surreal Deal

_My head felt extremely funny as I came to. I didn__'__t understand how reality was reshaped, or what I had to do to cause it. Despite being responsible for the shaping of several of these realities myself, they were all accidental, and I didn__'__t know I could control it. As I felt solid ground re-form under me, I could only sit and hope that my anger at Shadow, not to mention Shadow__'__s own influence had no bearing on what reality would be like now._

Surrealist paintings. Those words swam around Sonic's head as he looked at the world around him. Everything was broken, and malformed, but not in a post-apocalyptic state. No this wasn't a war zone; rather just warped. The sky was a myriad of colour; with different parts all sweeping along, moving under there own influence. Sonic watched as a patch of red sky merged with a patch of yellow, turning the sky orange. The orange patch then passed harmlessly through a patch of green.

Sonic turned his head, and looked at the buildings. They occupied half of his line of sight, some of them twisting like corkscrews, others bending and twisting over themselves. None of them seemed to move, but Sonic watched the inhabitants of them moving around, seemingly oblivious to the very rules of physics they were defying as they did.

Highways looped around pointlessly, with off ramps that lead straight back onto themselves. It all looked impractical, yet the traffic was following it as if it was completely normal. Sonic watched closely as the cars drove in amongst each other with no real sense of order or rules to it. The vehicles all moved as they wanted, some forwards, others following direction, but in reverse, with the drivers looking behind them. Some even drove what the hedgehog could only just make out was the wrong side of the road.

But the most baffling part of this to Sonic was how everybody just accepted this. To the hundreds of anthro's and humans who walked past the bewildered looking hedgehog, some doing handstands, some walking on one leg and one hand, none of them seemed phased by anything. Everyone acted calm, and didn't even flinch when a tree uprooted itself, and walked under its own power three feet to the left, out of the shade, and into the light of the sky's green sun.

"You've done it now Sonic," Shadow said irritated.

"It was supposed to return everything to normal," Sonic said with disbelief.

"It did." Shadow said calmly, walking off from the hedgehog.

"It… what?" Sonic yelled to the hedgehog.

"Did you really think you could fix reality with one emerald left?" Shadow said, looking back, "The emeralds lock reality in place, they don't restore it. Break the seal, break the basis of reality."

"So what does form the basis of reality mister know-it-all?" Sonic asked panicked.

Shadow looked to the hedgehog, and scoffed, "Let me know if you figure it out." With that the black hedgehog disappeared behind what Sonic thought looked like a train carriage, only without a train pulling it, or any tracks. The hedgehog watched it as it changed direction, tilting itself upwards and flying vertically into the sky. The blue hedgehog then looked for his black counterpart to no avail.

Sonic wandered around for a bit. Everything looked so wrong to the hedgehog, and thinking about this with any semblance of normal physics hurt the hedgehog's brain. Watching people who were standing sideways walk into sideways doors and then stand normally on there feet was mind boggling, and Sonic didn't want to think about how much time was lost with this realities impracticalities.

It was pure fluke that caused Sonic to run into what he recognised to be Knuckles. Sonic crossed his fingers as he approached the female echidna. "Hey, Knux," he said, hoping this was indeed who he thought it was, "What are you up to?"

"Nothing illegal," the echidna replied, her eyelashes fluttering as she spoke, "not yet anyway. Why? What do you want?"

"Nothing," Sonic said, "Just wondering if you'd seen Dawn," the hedgehog continued.

"You lost her again?" Knuckles replied sarcastically, "You men really are hopeless."

"I was just asking," the hedgehog said, annoyance in his tone.

"Sonic!" came a reply, as a winged cat descended from the sky. Sonic watched as the vaguely familiar site of what he assumed to be Dawn lowered to the ground. The hedgehog flicked off her jetpack as she did, and twitched her wings, confusing Sonic as to why she needed the jetpack anyway.

"Dawn," Sonic replied; part questioning, part stating as fact.

"I'll leave you two to it," the echidna said. Sonic watched her make her exit, reaching up into someone's pocket and grabbing their wallet as Knuckles passed them. Sonic wondered how the wallet didn't fall out, before scratching it up to another thing that didn't make sense.

"Where have you been Sonic?" Dawn asked confused, "You were supposed to meet me at the Palm tree & Panic Puppet theatre."

"Sorry, I got kind of lost." Sonic said.

"I'm not surprised," Dawn replied, "This street's terribly confusing. So much straight, no curves, no real loops, so many people get lost here it's ridiculous. There's not even a shift in gravity on this part."

Sonic eyed the cat oddly, wondering if she was being sarcastic or serious. His suspicions where quickly denied when a lost tourist clutching a map asked for the location of a building several feet ahead. Dawn giving guided directions on how to walk a straight line to said tourist was something Sonic was not going forget for a while.

"Something wrong Sonic?" Dawn enquired.

"Nah, well maybe…"

"What?"

"It's nothing, don't worry." Sonic said. He clutched the cat tightly in his arms, partially relieved to see Dawn, partially to stop her questioning him.

"What was that for?" Dawn smiled.

"Because I can," Sonic replied. The hedgehog heard his imagination make a retching sound as he did. Something about romance seemed wrong in Sonic's mind, but at the same time perfectly correct. The hedgehog dismissed it, choosing instead to focus on the one positive he did have. Yes looking around him reality was more chaotic than it had ever been, but Sonic had Dawn here, together the pair of them could suss it.

It was then Sonic realised he didn't have the R.O.S.C. device. Sonic kicked himself. Since Dawn was no longer a robot, he no longer had the very device he would need.

"Excuse me," a voice came from behind, "but I don't think something's right here."

Dawn turned around first, and Sonic heard the cat gasp. "H-how…" she spluttered in shock.

"What?" Sonic asked, as he turned round, and saw a two dimensional grey hedgehog.

The very same hedgehog both of them recognised as Silver, the star of the cartoon series _The Adventures of Silver the Hedgehog. _


	27. Idle Idol

_Now as a sidekick I__'__m quite used to people being slightly star struck when they spot me. However, being an idol, and meeting your childhood hero are two very different things, and being stood here next to the character I__'__d get excited about every Saturday morning as a kid was just unbelievable. It didn__'__t help that Dawn was also as star struck, and neither of us had any idea what to say, bar the obvious._

"Why do you look so flat?" Sonic said tactlessly.

"What?" Silver answered, still with the same look of confusion on his face.

"Sonic!" Dawn said aghast, before turning to the new hedgehog, "I'm sorry for him," she blushed.

"It's okay, I was just wondering myself why you two… well actually everyone and everything really, looks so wrong."

"You noticed too?" Sonic said.

Dawn looked at both hedgehogs puzzled, "Errm, what's going on?"

"This proves it," Sonic said with glee on his face, "Dawn, reality is messed up."

"Err…" Dawn said unconvinced.

"This is the proof I've been after," Sonic said triumphantly, "Dawn, you know Silver's not real right?"

"Yeah…" Dawn said, unsure where Sonic was going with this.

Sonic grabbed hold of Silver by the arm; unnerved slightly by how it felt in the blue hedgehogs hands. Silvers himself seemed to have no depth perception about him. To look at, Silver looked like a cardboard cut-out, only it could move in all three dimensions. Despite this, no matter where he was looking or facing, Sonic always saw the grey hedgehog like he would a cardboard cut-out stood in front of him. The blue hedgehog tried not to focus too much on it, as it made his head hurt.

"Look at him," Sonic said, "For one, he shouldn't exist right, and secondly, he looks like he belongs in a cartoon. There's nothing on Mobius like this, and you know as well as I do that there shouldn't be."

"Hey, I got a few questions for you y'know." Silver said, becoming irritated, and forcing Sonic to let go of him. "For one, where am I? Two, what in the name of the entirety of existence is up with all of you?"

"That's what we're trying to sort out," Sonic said.

"But you all look so… I don't even know what the word is," Silver continued, "It's just so wrong."

"Stop trying to figure it out," Dawn advised, her voice becoming noticeably irritated.

Sonic was suddenly reminded of his fight against the robotic Dawn. Then she had warned of the Monsters of Chaos listening to her words, and she warned not to say certain things around her. Obviously, Sonic rationalised, it was this questioning of reality that would set her off. Without taking a second's hesitation, he grabbed Silver by the wrist and yanked the grey hedgehog for nearly three hundred miles of twisted scenery.

Silver managed to break free of Sonic's grip and sprawled a landing into a patch of purple grass growing sideways out of a brick wall. Sonic found it too nauseating to stand on such a wall, and carefully walked back down to what his brain rationalised to be the correct alignment. The blue hedgehog's feet felt funny as his centre of gravity re-aligned itself.

"What was that all about?" Silver asked, annoyed and frustrated.

"Let me try to explain dude," Sonic said, wondering who said dude anymore. Sonic began to explain events as he knew them, including how he knew Silver.

"So I'm just a cartoon character?" Silver asked, "What about Blaze, or Neggaman?"

"Same," Sonic replied, "And I don't know if they're in this reality or not."

"So how do I get back to my world?" Silver continued.

"I don't know. I don't even know if you have a world," Sonic replied, diverting his eyes away from the hedgehog, "This entire reality isn't real at all, you only have to look at the obvious flaws of physics to see that."

"Yeah," Silver agreed, "Even my world's not this weird, and it's apparently a cartoon."

Sonic grinned slightly, but tried to keep a straight face, "All I know," Sonic said calmly, "Is that it's got something to do with the Monsters of Chaos, whatever they are, and the Sol Emeralds, of which one is left."

"So we've got to go stop these monsters," Silver replied, catching Sonic's train of thought, "And get a hold of this last emerald. That should allow us to get your reality sorted, and get me back to mine. So how do we do that?"

"I don't know," Sonic replied, disheartened. He kicked a pebble away with his shoe. It collided with another grass wall and exploded on impact into a slew of blue sparks. Sonic was getting fed up of all these random nonsensical parts of reality, one or two were surprising, but most were too far out there to make any sense, and it boggled his brain too much.

"I do," came a chuckle. Sonic turned around to see the all too smug face of doctor Eggman sat in his usual grey Eggpod.

"Neggaman!" Silver yelled with surprise.

"He he he," Eggman chuckled, "Would you look at that, the cartoon thinks I'm his enemy."

"What do you want," Sonic asked, noticing the ship was unarmed.

"Other than revenge for taking away the glory of the Eggman Empire?" Eggman replied sarcastically, "Nothing but to warn you. I couldn't help but overhear you discuss your plans to take down the Monsters of Chaos. Now I think it's only fair that you don't try it, for your own sakes."

"Why are you helping us Robuttnik?" Sonic said, confusing himself why.

"Hmph," Eggman snorted, "I see you _almost_ know who I am then."

"So you're just here to warn us then?" Silver enquired.

"Think of it as a favour," Eggman said. Sonic could just make out the human sat with his fingers crossed in the Eggpod, "I merely want the pleasure of crushing you both for myself," Eggman taunted, "although it looks like you got my warning just in time," he said before flying off, streams of multicoloured smoke pouring to the left from the right hand side mounted exhaust, forcing Eggman to fly sideways.

Sonic turned around, as his eyes fixed on an anthro sized red being. It looked vaguely like a bat, only with smaller ears. It hissed at the hedgehogs, and stared at them with dark red eyes.

"Prime server," it roared angrily, "I am here on behalf of the other six Monsters of Chaos to stop you!"


	28. Hint Sprint

_So there I was, me, the apparent Prime Server of the Sol Emeralds, a position I imagined Dawn would always fulfil, if I ever heard of the term; stood next to a two dimensional version of my childhood hero, the telepathically gifted Silver the Hedgehog, staring at a translucent creature who was referring to itself as a Monster of Chaos, the very things which were behind everything that had gone wrong with reality. So why none of us made an effort to attack the other is beyond me even now._

Silver was the one who took the initiative to speak first. "Why have you messed with reality?"

"It's the plan," the creature hissed, making a slow advance, "We might not have the perfect reality anymore, but we still have one emerald, and seven servers left. We can still restore things to how they need to be, and re-lock reality, and prevent all of this from happening again."

"Why?" Sonic asked, wanting an answer. He didn't want to admit it, but any answer would be sufficient here. The blue hedgehog had had enough of this confusion, and wanted an explanation.

"I am one of the seven Monsters of Chaos," The creature replied, it's voice crackly with malice.

"We know that," Sonic muttered sarcastically, "What I want to know is why are you doing this?"

"For our existence," The creature answered.

"What?" Silver continued.

The creature glared at Silver, accepting the hedgehogs flat form without hesitation, "You of all people should accept the idea that this reality needs to exist considering the present circumstances."

"What's that s'posed to mean?" Silver asked curiously, his spines swaying oddly in the upwards breeze.

"You really think you exist in a reality where everything is in the third dimension?" the monster replied, red tendrils swaying in the updraft.

"Listen, whatever you are," Sonic yelled, "You know as well as I do that this isn't how everything, or even anything should be. I don't know what you want, but I'm here to save the day and restore reality as it should be."

"And do you know how to do that?" The monster asked, curious to the blue hedgehogs plans.

Sonic didn't say anything, he knew the monster was right. All he knew was that if could find the R.O.S.C. or that last Sol Emerald, then reality would be stuck like this. He eyed the monster carefully, watching it as it's eyes flickered between himself and the grey hedgehog Sonic was stood next to.

"As I thought," the monster smirked, "In all this time you've still not sussed what's going on. You really are hopeless Prime Server."

"We'll beat you," Silver yelled, "We might be the underdogs, but we'll come out on top!"

The monster looked at the hedgehogs and scoffed, "Ask your friend in the third dimension what he thinks," it laughed, as it faded out of sight, dissolving into a gas and seeping itself through the air. Sonic made a grab for it, but his fingers slid through the red trail, merely moving it around, not actually connecting with anything for the hedgehog to grab.

"Sonic?" Silver asked hesitantly; annoyed to watch the creature slip away without so much as a struggle.

The blue hedgehog didn't reply immediately. He was still weighing up everything in his head. Everything he'd heard from Dawn, as well as from Shadow, and from Eggman, and now from one of the monsters itself. Even now it still didn't make sense.

"It doesn't add up," Sonic eventually replied.

"What doesn't?"

"All this," the blue blur continued, "Here we are, still alive, yet we're the ones who can stop these monsters. But they've not made any effort to kill us. Why wouldn't you kill the people who can stop your plans?"

Silver thought for a moment. "Because you need them alive," he said, clicking his fingers with realisation.

"Exactly," Sonic answered, "But why? What do they need us for?" His hand was stroking his chin slowly.

"I don't know." Silver shrugged. He looked around him briefly to make sure there were no other monsters nearby, "But surely someone must?"

"Yep," Sonic said with a knowing grin, "Eggman. He knows more than he's letting on, and it's about time we got him to give us some proper answers."

"Plus he might have either a Sol Emerald, or at least know where the last one is."

"If he had it, he would've gloated about it," Sonic corrected, "However he'll definitely have an R.O.S.C."

"So now all we gotta do is find Eggman's base," Silver said, "Hopefully this time without having to go all around the houses to find parts for a pattern generator."

"Yep, which means we have to find Eggman," Sonic said, smirking, "and that smoke trail will lead us straight to him. You think you can keep up?"

"I'm pretty fast," Silver replied, unsure what the blue hedgehog was getting at.

"You're about to see why I'm known as the fastest thing alive," Sonic said with a cocky grin. Never in his wildest dreams, did Sonic imagine he would get to race his childhood hero, "I'll even give you a head start," the hedgehog continued, stretching his legs, his gloved paw pressing against his left thigh.

"I doubt somehow you could beat me." Silver replied, "But this isn't the time to get cocky, that trails not going to last forever."

"In that case," Sonic replied, as he dashed past the silver hedgehog so fast that he became but a dot on the horizon in seconds. The blue blur left the end of that sentence hanging, and wondered what Silver would make of his speed.

He didn't have to wait long, as he saw Silver floating past Sonic, the grey hedgehog carrying himself at speeds that were close to Sonics fastest using only the power of his mind. As far as Sonic was concerned, the chase after Eggman had finally gotten interesting, and yelling to Silver to keep up, Sonic blasted forward, jumping over bridges that spanned over themselves, and along solid ice held in the air by only a distinct lack of gravity.

The race itself would be demanding, but the twisted obstacle course reality had created only served to up the ante as far as Sonic was concerned, and he and Silver made haste following the slowly dissipating trail of doctor Eggman.


	29. Tower Power

_I was born to run. I know lots of people say that about a heck of a lot of things, but for me running is in the blood. It actually hurts if I stand still for too long, due to the amount of running I'm used to doing. But I just love it, the wind on my face, the sight of all the buildings and things rushing past me, most of it going too fast for me to even register what it was. It's a great way to get away from everything, especially when you can cover the distances I do in the speed I can.  
_  
Sonic looked up to see the base of Silver's feet hovering above him. Above that, seemingly the exact same distance away from Sonic's eyes Sonic could see Silvers face, a look of partially concentration upon it as the albino hedgehog was focusing his thoughts to levitate himself above the blue blur beneath him. Sonic himself was going rather fast to keep up with his idol, though this was still nothing for Sonic, who had decided to make the journey to Eggman's base more interesting by means of a race.

The pair needed to go fast though, they were following a trail of smoke, and while Silver couldn't perceive a problem, Sonic was all too aware that even that might not be enough due to the universes unique way of giving logic such a headache that it would give up on life itself where logic a living being.

However, Silver had the easier path. Save for the odd sideways tree, or floating bar of scrap metal, Silvers path was more or less straight. Sonic on the hand, had to contend with a twisty path that seemed intent purely on annoying him. If it wasn't a patch of grass decided to fall upwards, it would be an invisible wall blocking his way, and if it wasn't an invisible wall he'd find himself enter a tunnel, only to come out of the entrance he'd just walked into to begin with. Needless to say Sonic was finding this terrain frustrating at the best of times to navigate.

"Makes me want for the Scrap Brain Zone," Sonic mused, "At least that place had a fair system of gravity," he grumbled, as another chunk of land fell to his left, collapsing in a pile on the side of the canyon.

"The where?" Silver asked, lifting himself out of the path of the falling ground.

Sonic began to repeat himself but stopped, "No idea actually," he said confused. Sonic shook his head, within all the confusion of the last few days Sonic had to admit he had no idea what was and wasn't real. A tiny part of Sonic was worried that he'd find out that he himself wasn't real, and that in doing this he would bring about his own demise, but he dismissed those thoughts, and focused instead on jumping self righting trees.

Within a few moments, the pair of hedgehogs had reached a large metal structure attached to the side of a rocky cliff. The door was on the ceiling, and Sonic's brain immediately told him he'd have no way of getting to it. Silver then naturally suggested he lift them both into the door, an idea Sonic was all too keen on, after all the upside down gravity his brain could handle.

The pair of them watched carefully, looking for guard patrols, or any sign of hostility as they made there attack on the tower. Seeing nothing to indicate any sign of an attack, Silver began to focus, levitating both himself and Sonic towards the door. Sonic felt gravity switch under him. It was no longer a case of being lifted to the right anymore, but rather being lifted upwards.

Neither hedgehog expected the loud roaring noise from bellow. The tower began to shake, as the blue and grey hedgehog made there slow accent, the blue hedgehog silent; the grey one focusing on the task at hand. Sonic was watching carefully, and he couldn't understand why the tower was shaking so ferociously. He felt the air get warmer on his skin, and looking down Sonic got his answer. The tower was coming loose from the rocks, pushed from the very earth the tower was mounted in.

It was then that Sonic realised that this wasn't a tower at all, but a large airship, perhaps even a spaceship. The hedgehog looked to his telekinetic friend, and wondered if he should point this out. The pair was now less than ten feet from the door, but at the rate the ship was moving, they might not make it if Sonic broke Silver's concentration.

There was a quiet whirring noise, barely audible above the roar of the engines. It took Sonic several seconds to register what it was, and by that point the bullets had scraped past his blue fur by fractions of an inch. Breaking his silence, Sonic yelled to Silver. Silver looked up, and watched the guns fire. The pair of them were sitting ducks now. Silver couldn't lift them any faster, but if they didn't make it now, they might never make the entrance, and consequently might not find Eggman.

"Sonic!" came a familiar yell, as a purple bi-plane passed the pair of hedgehogs. "We were looking for you, we found Eggman's base," Tails finished.

"We found it too," Sonic yelled back, "Think we could get a hand here?"

"Affirmative," Tails replied, as the bi-plane flew underneath them. Sonic jumped from Silver's telekinetic grip, and landed atop the bi-plane's wings, something he felt he had done numerous times before. Silver too noticed that Sonic had left his grasp, and harnessed the spare mental power to propel himself faster up. Sonic watched from the plan as Silver stood on the door.

"I suggest you move out of the way," Sonic yelled to Silver. The grey hedgehog did so, and watched as Sonic leapt of the plane with a spin, and smashed through the door, sending shards of metal flying.

"I'll see if I can take out the ship before it gets into orbit," Tails yelled, as Sonic re-emerged from the door, "You lot go in there and save Dawn!"

"Dawn's in there?" Sonic said, alarm in his voice.

"Yes," Tails replied, "Eggman's holding her prisoner, he said something about revenge, but I didn't catch it all," the fox replied, two of his three tails swaying out of the back of the bi-plane. "I'll be in radio contact if anything happens, and if I say to get out, then you three get out."

"Three?" Sonic said confused by what Tails meant, until he noticed a bright pink hedgehog carrying a crossbow. Sonic hadn't even noticed Amy until now, and wondered if he had enough hedgehogs with him now. Having Amy nearby probably meant that Shadow wouldn't be too far behind, unless reality changing had made that something only he could remember.

"Glad to see you too," Amy said sarcastically, "Look, I know you've got a crush on me Sonic, but don't let that interfere with our mission okay?"


	30. Jail Tale

_Once you've entered one of Eggman's flying fortresses you've been inside most of them. Sure, the layout is different with each one, and the robots that patrol it will change, but largely it's much the same stuff, only on a different size, and bar the issues of a messed up gravity, and a total disregard for the laws of physics, this ship was fairly easy to get through, especially with a telekinetically gifted hedgehog, and a surprisingly accurate sharpshooter at my side as we progressed towards Dawn's cell._

It took Team Silver, as Sonic was fairly persistent upon calling them, around five minutes to run from there starting point, to the prisons. During which time Sonic had felt gravity change underneath him no less than seventeen times, including one occasion of absolutely zero gravity; something which dumbfounded him, due to his own perceptions of physics. Sonic might not have been a genius, but he knew that gravity didn't work how it had been recently.

Silver and Amy on the other hand had no issues with it. To them, this was normal. Even more dumbfounding to Sonic at least was how Amy had accepted Silver's two dimensional appearance. This bugged Sonic for two reasons: firstly because looking at Silver for too long while he moved made Sonic's brain hurt, and secondly because it was another sign that Amy herself might be another lie created by the monsters.

Sonic had officially given up on trying to sort was and what wasn't real now. In his mind, the hedgehog was only sure of one thing; that he had to defeat the monsters, whatever the costs. After all, the hedgehog deduced, if something wasn't real, then when reality returned to what it should be, he wouldn't remember what it was. It's not that Sonic didn't care, more that it was easier on the hedgehogs brain to not worry about anything as complex as what formed reality when he was still trying to get used to walking on the ceiling.

That's not to say he didn't help his team mates as they made progress from the ship. Sonic was detrimental, and between them, the three of them made short work of some of Eggman's toughest robots. While this was hardly the assistance Sonic was used to, a combination of Silver's telepathy and Amy's crossbow was as similar a match to Dawn's magical abilities as Sonic could hope for.

"Here we go," Amy said, kicking open a cold metallic door. It banged against the wall slightly, the lock already broken by some very fiddly psychic manipulation courtesy of Silver. "Prison cells forty eight through to seventy two, on Eggman's very own airship, the Flying Egg, version two," she continued, mimicking what Tails had told her on the way here.

Sonic did a double take for a moment. He could've sworn that at the very least the term Flying Egg meant something to him, but he was unable to place it. Nevertheless, as the hedgehog eyed down twenty four identical doors he wondered to himself which one contained Dawn. Sonic cried out to her, hoping she would guide him, and his two companions, to the right cell, but there was no reply.

"She might be unconscious," Amy said answering a question Sonic was just about to answer, "We'll have to check every cell."

The three of them began opening cells one at a time, to no avail. After more than half were done there hadn't been a single prisoner. Sonic began to wonder why the ship would even need seventy two prison cells when the overwhelming majority were empty, but pressed on regardless.

"Oh thank goodness you found me Sonic," came a distraught reply. Sonic looked on bewildered. The reply had come from a bald human with a large ginger moustache. The blue hedgehog had had to do a double take as the man introduced himself, "I'm Doctor Ovi Kintobor."

Sonic looked at the man blankly. The name didn't mean anything to him, and he couldn't recognise this human's face. Kintobor however clearly knew Sonic, but Sonic couldn't be sure if this was his own reputation and fame, or if he should know the human.

"I haven't got much time," Kintobor continued, worry in his voice, "You need to know something Sonic, Dawn is one of the Monsters of Chaos."

The surprise hit Sonic hard. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, he simply didn't want to accept it. In spite of everything, it simply wasn't possible for Sonic to consider the idea that Dawn was one of the monsters. He had to push the human for more information. Unfortunately there were two to many hedgehogs in the room for Sonic to ask all he wanted to know.

"I tried to warn you," Kintobor continued, "Just after you spoke to a much younger version of Miss Rose, right before you destroyed the Sol Emerald for yourself, I was the one trying to stop you."

"I guess I was too quick for you," Sonic smirked.

"Who are you talking to Sonic? Have you found her?" Amy asked, suddenly noticing Sonic was no longer checking cells.

"It's another prisoner," Sonic said, "says his name is err," Sonic paused, not wanting to tell them what was going on, "Miles," Sonic lied, "Miles Prower."

Sonic watched as both Silver and Amy failed to register the name. Images of a twin tailed version of his friend Tails flooded the hedgehogs mind. Nevertheless, the lie dissuaded both Silver and Amy from further questions. An idea came to Sonic's mind, and he told both hedgehogs that Dawn had been moved. Instructing them to go after, Sonic stayed put, informing his friends he'd help Miles escape, when in reality he was seeking answers.

"Now that they've gone," the hedgehog continued to the doctor, "Tell me what you know about what's going on then."

"I don't know it all," Kintobor sighed, "but I know a couple of things. The Monsters of Chaos, as you've been calling them lived inside these gems called the Chaos Emeralds, a set of gems identical to what you know to be the Sol Emeralds."

"You mean the ones guarded by Big the Cat in another dimension?" Sonic said with disbelief. The very idea of Big guarding anything made even less sense to Sonic than a two dimensional hedgehog did.

"Kind of," Kintobor explained, "But they're actually from our dimension. I don't think I need to tell you that this isn't how reality should be."

"Do you know what caused this?" Sonic asked.

"It was the monsters," Kintobor answered, "They need a reality like this, they can't exist outside of the Chaos Emeralds alone. They tried taking people's bodies, even got mine, but they couldn't get full freedom like that, and now that the Chaos Emeralds are broken, they have that."

"So how do I stop them?" Sonic asked, keenly listening to the human's advice.

"I don't know," Kintobor sighed, "Just be careful Sonic. The entire fabric of reality is at stake here. Simply smashing the last Sol Emerald will only destroy everything. You'll need the Master Emerald."

Kintobor stopped talking. Sonic turned around to see something that would silence anyone; a very annoyed looking Doctor Eggman.


	31. Late Update

_It's very easy to recognise Doctor Eggman from a crowd. Even if you're not looking for him, you can't help but notice his yellow and black suit, his large grey moustache, or the goggles he wears on his head. His physical body even resembles an egg on a pair of legs, making him rather unique, especially when compared to the other humans on Earth, something I'd never even noticed before._

"I knew you'd come here Sonic," Doctor Eggman said, stepping into the cell.

"What do you want walrus chops?" Sonic said bitterly as he looked upon his sworn enemy.

"Your help Sonic," Eggman said begrudgingly.

"Why?"

"Same reason I helped you twice before," Eggman replied confidently, "Because you and me need to work together to fix reality back to what it should be."

"Oh yeah?" Sonic spat rhetorically, "And what's that when it's at home?"

"Sonic?" Kintobor said cautiously. It was obvious he was uneasy and worried, "What's gotten into you?"

Before Sonic could answer, Amy's voice rang out down the corridors. It echoed off the walls as she shouted. "Sonic, we found her, we need to get out of here before- Eggman!" she finished abruptly, as she turned the corner to see Dr. Eggman's large frame. Eggman turned to her and smiled gleeful as she was followed by Silver carrying Dawn, helping her stay upright telepathically.

"What's going on here?" Silver asked angrily. He glared at Eggman as he spoke. "Explain yourself Neggaman!"

Eggman looked at the flat hedgehog, and without saying a word, dismissed his concerns as trivial by simply turning away from the white hedgehog, and continued to Sonic, "You're all here now," he said smirking.

"Don't start…" Dawn uttered, as loud as she could. She was severally bruised, and had not been treated well recently. She tried to move towards Eggman, but got no further than three steps before she collapsed completely, with only Silvers telepathy keeping her from hitting the ground. He eased her down slowly.

"Do it." Sonic said firmly, "I'm sick of all this now. All the secrets, all the 'you mustn't knows' all the things I've been kept out of the loop and in the dark. I'm fed up of people pulling me away before I get all the answers, and of people refusing to co-operate with me. Reality is messed up, and it's no longer relevant if anyone here doesn't know it, as I know you all know really deep down. So I don't care if I'm told by Robotnik, or Kintobor, or Eggman, or however you pronounce the reverse of Eggman," Sonic said, realising in his anger just who Dr. Kintobor was, and became, but still too full of rage to stop, "or even if I'm told by a half naked squirrel princesses handheld computers hologram projection, I just want the answers."

"Fine," Eggman scoffed, "It's very simple. The Monsters of Chaos broke reality. I think you know that by now. They then created this world, a world which was not too different from what we knew, so that they could be freed from the Chaos Emeralds which used to be there prison. You see, dear Sonic," Eggman said patronisingly, "The Monsters were sealed inside the emeralds for there misdeeds centuries ago. The power of the Chaos emeralds draws from the power of there very souls."

"I see…" Sonic said, only vaguely following, "But what does that have to do with the cardboard cut-out?"

"They got it wrong Sonic," Kintobor answered, "They read your minds, but couldn't sort out your real memories from your imagined ones."

"They did this with all of them. All the servers helped assemble reality anew." Eggman interrupted

"But why?"

Eggman looked around to all the faces around him, before continuing, "For there escape. They couldn't exist without a host body. But when reality was rebuilt, they got there host bodies, and gained there freedom."

"There was just one slight setback," Dawn said, her voice distinctly different, angrier, deeper sounding, and altogether more aggressive than it had been, "The servers would remember, and they had the power to return things to normal. But it's too late now Prime Server, you've been going along helpfully destroying the very things that would've saved reality as you knew it."

"The Sol Emeralds!" Sonic said in realisation, "I'll still stop you!"

"Unlikely," Dawn continued, "As your friend said earlier, there needs to be two Sol Emeralds to make more. That's why an eighth appeared, because there'd been enough time between the destruction of the first one, and that new reality being made to create the eighth. But since you got more pro-active about destroying realities, you never let another one be made. You doomed yourself Prime Server, with two choices, you can either live amidst the Chaos like we did for eons, or you destroy life altogether," Dawn said smugly.

Sonic tensed up, He wasn't ready to strike for any particular reason, but he was just itching for an excuse to fight. He simply couldn't let reality stay this way, but he couldn't destroy everything either. Surely, Sonic thought, there had to be a third way.

" - Control!" came a cry from above, as a black hedgehog teleported in. No sooner than he had, than he grabbed Sonic's wrist and yelled "Sol Control!" as the scenery around Sonic changed from a group of faces whom were either confused, or gloating, to that of an orbital view of Earth bellow. Sonic looked around, and found himself on the far too familiar site of the Death Egg.


	32. Space Displace

_Whatever I thought of Shadow before, I was glad for him to get me out of such an awkward situation. There were too many bodies in that room to fight effectively. I had hoped that Silver would__'__ve done the sane thing and teleported Amy away, and was rather sure Eggman would__'__ve had a plan himself, and with Dawn revelling herself to be one of the monsters, she could__'__ve got out of there, which just left Kintobor. But no amount of pleading would convince Shadow to get him._

"Fine," Sonic said, "Don't do it then."

"If you hadn't noticed," The black hedgehog said slowly, "We've got far more pressing issues than rescuing your best friend."

"But he might not be safe,"

"He lived for years inside the Chaos Emeralds, he'll be fine." Shadow replied, "Now tell me what you know.

Sonic protested at first, but began to explain to Shadow as best he could everything that had just transpired. The pair of them stood, looking at the Earth, surrounded on three sides by darkened grey metal. Space atmosphere meant it still looked fairly new, but everything was settled, and the trained eye would know the Death Egg hadn't been used for some time.

However, even this orbiting satellite, far from the planet bellow wasn't safe from the illogical physics. There were patches with gravity, patches with none, and places where gravity would pull at your from both directions. Yet here, in space, where a sideways doorway wouldn't be an issue, all the doorways were consistent. Everything was uniform, in a place where such uniformality wouldn't be best suited.

"And that's all I know," Sonic said looking at Shadow as he finished his story, "What about you? What have you been up to?"

"I got this," Shadow replied, clutching at the last of the Sol Emeralds. It gleamed in the light of the sun. "Now all we need is a NOCC or an R.O.S.C."

"Wait, there are two devices?"

"Yes," Shadow answered. His voice echoed slightly, "One will alter reality if used, based on what the user wants; the other sends a signal to an untraceable location, where the new reality is decided."

"Complicated," Sonic muttered, "Is it reversible though?"

"Yes, but we will need the Master Emerald."

"Is there anything else you know?"

"Eggman's in on it." Shadow replied, "The whole thing. Eggman himself is one of the Monsters of Chaos."

Sonic stood quietly surprised. His jaw hung open slightly, if only for a moment, and he tried to make sense of everything Eggman had done to this point. Sonic reviewed his actions, it made sense that Dawn, as a Monster of Chaos, would co-operate with another monster. It also made sense that he seemed to always come out on top no matter what reality did to the world. After a while he eventually spoke, asking what Eggman wanted earlier on aboard the Flying Egg.

"I don't know," Shadow answered, "But at a guess he wanted your help locating the Master Emerald. The Monsters have been looking for it ever since this began, but it hasn't showed up. But you know where it is, you have always had an instinct for the Chaos Emeralds, and you've always been able to find them."

"You've got me mixed up with the guardian Rouge there."

"_Knuckles_ is the true guardian," Shadow answered, "And I know you still think you're a sidekick but you're not. It pains me to say this, but right now you're the most important thing alive, and the only one who can restore order into this world of Chaos. I'm not going to give you some rubbish friendship and teamwork speech like your friends love to do, but you need to know what you are, and you need to save the world. Which is why you're here, from here you just might sense the emeralds."

"Huh?" Sonic replied, not understanding why.

"This won't make sense to you, but trust me," Shadow answered, "From the Ark I could always feel the Chaos Emeralds when they were on Earth. Whenever I was away from them, they beckoned to me. Gerald always said it was because I was the ultimate lifeform, and would always state scientifically that I was designed to use Chaos powers. But nowhere in his experiments did my ability show up, yet recently I saw another with this ability, though he didn't realise it. Through all this I know now that while I was built to harness the power, I can sense the power because I'm one of the seven Servers of Chaos. And you, Sonic, are the Prime Server, and as such, you too can sense the emeralds."

"But that doesn't explain why you brought me here…"

"It's because the world itself is Chaotic. All the hustle and bustle of all the people down there cancel it out. They too have a chaotic energy, but it's much too weak to affect you here. In close proximity you can sense an emerald, but from here, many thousand miles above the surface, you can detect it all. And since you are the Prime server, only you can find the Master Emerald."

"Okay," Sonic said, closing his eyes. He turned to face the planet and tried to focus. Behind him he could feel the energy emitting from the emerald in Shadow's left paw. It was bothering him, distracting him. He opened his eyes, and asked for the emerald.

Shadow hesitantly agreed, and watched as the blue hedgehog. He held onto it tightly, and was about to sit down, when a thought occurred to him. "Wait a minute," Sonic said, clutching the Emerald tightly, "Why did you agree to help Eggman for as long as you did?"

Shadow stayed silent. Sonic asked him again, at which point the black hedgehog replied, "It was because they promised me all I wanted. But you ruined it time and time again, and now the world is too chaotic for any of the servers to live in, so I must help fix it."

Sonic thought this over. He looked at Shadow, and looked around at the old space station. Thoughts swam through Sonic's mind. Absolutely everything he knew to be true had been pulled out from under his feet, and now even the basis of these realities could easily be things that weren't real. For all Sonic knew, he was imaginary, and none of this had anything to do with the real world.

Sonic felt weird, and looked at himself. He was glowing faintly yellow. From watching Shadow he could see time was beginning to slow down around him. Shadow's movement's became slower and slower, and then they stopped completely. Though unintentional, Sonic had evoked Chaos Freeze upon the entire world. Sonic stood up, and found he was floating in one spot. It was only then he realised it. The reason the Monsters of Chaos couldn't find the Master Emerald was because the Earth itself was the Master Emerald.


	33. Unfrozen Chosen

_From high above, the world is a beautiful thing to look at. Sure, the world may have been reshaped in the image of man and anthro over the last few thousand years, but when you get many thousand miles above, even the busiest cities fade into nothing, leaving nothing to behold but the deep blue of the sea, the light greys of the clouds, and the greenery that covered much of the land. Even with supersonic speed, it'd be difficult to see absolutely everything, but it would sure be worth it to try._

Time stood still for Sonic. This was a weird sensation for him. Nowhere in the memories he thought were real, he had never once wielded magic, and yet now he had this magical control of time; something he couldn't even remember seeing Dawn do, though he was once informed of the abilities of a set of gems that did just that.

Sonic's mind began to consider everything he had heard recently. There was a lot of information to take in, and he wasn't sure how much of it made any sense. Trust had become an issue to the hedgehog. After all, if Tails, someone who had no reason to turn on Sonic, could do just that, then Sonic had no idea if he could trust either Eggman, or Shadow.

"It all comes down to what is and isn't real," Sonic muttered aloud. Though the blue hedgehog could still see Shadow, Sonic was now moving outside the conventional laws of time. He wasn't sure how long this would last, but he decided to make the most of it to try to make sense of it.

Sonic looked down again at the Earth. He could still feel it, the call of the Master Emerald. It was a new sensation to him, and one he wasn't too convinced he should feel. That's when he made a realisation; surely the guardian of the Master Emerald would feel it to, and perhaps they could sort just what was going on.

Which meant Sonic had to track down the floating continent that was Angel Island. Normally, this wasn't an issue for Sonic, he'd have a direct link to the island's lone guardian, and if that didn't work, Tails had a device that enabled it to be traced. But this was when there was only one flying continent, and right now, the Earth was more flying continents than it was solid land. The way the islands hung in the air looked familiar to Sonic, unnatural, but something in his memory was jogged.

"How'd you get over there?" Shadow asked, as his face turned away from where Sonic was.

"Time just kinda stopped." Sonic said, slightly confused.

"Chaos control," Shadow murmured to himself, "Now tell me you know where the Master Emerald is."

"I still don't understand though Shadow," Sonic said, eyeing the black hedgehog carefully, "Why would having all you want, make you work with the monsters? I mean why would you want to be living with Amy for one? Why would you impersonate me anyway? None of it adds up to me."

"What does it matter?" Shadow replied, his voice still cold and emotionless, "So I did a few things in the past which you can't justify, but you don't even know the real me."

"I might not," Sonic said, as he focused himself, "But I will." The blue hedgehog finished, before he curled up into an all to familiar ball. Shadow saw what was happening, but even then it was too quick, and the blue hedgehog collided with his black double. Shadow was knocked flying, his body colliding against the cold steel of the space station. Almost immediately he got up, only to see Sonic clutching the last of the Sol Emeralds. Shadow dashed forwards as quickly as his rocket boots would allow, and leapt towards the blue hedgehog.

The black hedgehog slammed hard against the ground of the Death Egg where Sonic was stood. The blue hedgehog was gone.

"I knew you'd come here eventually," a harsh male voice beckoned. Sonic turned to face Rouge, the Guardian of the Master Emerald, and the last of the ancient race of Bats. "Ever since I learned of your quest to 'fix reality', as you seem to think you're doing, I knew you'd be back here, to destroy the Master Emerald."

"It will fix everything," Sonic replied.

"Oh?" Rouge asked rhetorically, "And what exactly will be fixed by destroying the Master Emerald?"

"Everything!" Sonic shouted, "It'll all be back to normal, everything will be how it should be; Tails will go back to being my sidekick, Robotnik will be the enemy, gravity will work as normal, and everything will be sorted and we'll have defeated the Monsters of Chaos."

Rouge paused for a moment before countering. "And Dawn?"

Sonic was stopped in his tracks. In all of this he had been too busy to focus on where anyone sat in relation to what was and wasn't real. Even thinking back to what he'd shouted at Rouge had surprised him, with thoughts he'd never even considered suddenly appearing in his mind.

"I thought so," Rouge said, answering one of her own questions, "You've become so obsessed by this idea that you can restore everything to how it should be that you've not even thought precisely how everything should be."

"I know how everything should be," Sonic replied without waiting, "I know things shouldn't be like this."

"Then how should things be Sonic?"

Sonic hesitated before replying, "I-I Just know…" he muttered.

"You don't sound so confident," Rouge responded, "But then how can you even be sure you're right?"

"I just know," Sonic replied, starting to feel angry, "I just know that this is wrong, I can't put my finger on it, or point it out to you, but there's something wrong."

"So tell me Sonic," Rouge said, "Who told you destroying the Master Emerald would help?"

"Shadow," Sonic answered.

"And you trust him?"

"Yeah…" Sonic trailed off

"Why? What makes him so trustworthy?"

"He remembers fully the world before me."

"And you believe him because? Do you have any proof he's being honest, and is even on your side?"

"What are you, an interrogator?" Sonic retorted, trying to hide his annoyance at being proved wrong.

"Maybe I am," Rouge replied sarcastically, "After all, I don't know what reality should be, maybe I'm actually a female, and that thieving echidna Knuckles is the guardian. But the point still stands, how do you know you're not being lied to Sonic? We both know where the Master Emerald is," Rouge said, checking all around her all of a sudden, "So if you ask me, you need to be _really_ sure that you've got it right before you try it. After all, you don't want to do anything that drastic to find you're wrong."


	34. Must Discuss

_Rouge had a couple of points, I had to admit. I did have absolutely no way of knowing if Shadow was telling the truth, and with everything he'd put me through in the course of these events I didn't have any reason to trust him. To be honest, the only reason I listened was because he was the only person who was agreeing with me, and the only person to offer any practical help. But what if I had been wrong? That didn't bear thinking about._

"So what do I do?" Sonic said. He was really out of his depth here, and he knew it. It had been over a week now; usually one of Eggman's schemes could be ended within less time. Sonic was disheartened, less than twenty minutes ago he was convinced he finally had an answer as to what he had to do, and now he was back to square one, with a possible solution, but no idea whether it was the right one or not.

Rouge stood next to the blue hedgehog as he gazed over the edge of the floating Island, watching the planet underneath slowly tilting around. Even he could tell that the hedgehog was at breaking point, and was lost. The bat also knew that his duties as guardian meant he had to try and stop Sonic from accessing the Eclipse Cannon his ancestors had made to defend them from the Babylonians.

The bat looked at the hedgehog, "It's not for me to say," said the bat, "You do what you have to, just know I'm going to uphold my duty as guardian and stop anyone who thinks they're going to use the cannon."

"Don't you think it's odd that the ancients of your civilization built a huge laser cannon though?" Sonic asked, trying to make Rouge see his point.

"My race made an island that moves entirely independently of the rest of the Earth and you question our ability to make a laser cannon strong enough to destroy the world?" Rouge retorted.

Sonic accepted defeat. He knew he couldn't explain it, and it made his brain hurt too much to think about it, as well as why they'd need a cannon powerful enough to destroy the world. What Sonic did know is he only had two options; live in a chaotic world, or destroy it, and hope Shadow was being truthful. This was the single reality Sonic had to face up to, either he was crazy, or the world was messed up and the only way to fix it was to destroy it.

"Here's what you do Sonic," Rouge said solemnly, "You go back home. Stay away from here, and let it slide. You seem to be the only person who thinks everything's messed up."

"There was another!" Sonic yelled, suddenly remembering, "A bee, I think, some sort of bug either way. Named, uhh, Tickle?" Sonic said, his paw scratching his chin.

"Tickle?" Rouge said, her mind racing through her own memories.

"Or Tikal?" Sonic replied, convinced he'd got it right that time, "Tikal, she said she was a Server of Chaos, and that…"

"Server of Chaos!" Rouge interrupted, "Can it really be true?"

"What?"

"An ancient prophecy, made long before even the Eclipse Canon," Rouge told the hedgehog, "Legend has it that there was a group of demons, who terrorized our world, making it there own, and manipulating everything around them to there pleasing. They were eventually caught and imprisoned, locked away in the safest place of all, by our tribe leader Tikal. As part of the locking away, she chose a group of sacred souls, sworn to be the protectors from the Chaos, the Servers of Chaos. Their duty was to make sure that the demons never escaped.

"But this was millennia ago," Rouge continued, "And Tikal knew that there lives would not be forever. Thus she bound those souls to the demons, forever tying the fate of the Servers to the protection of the jail in which the monsters resided, the Chaos Emeralds."

"So why am I the Prime Server?" Sonic asked, not convinced by the story.

"I don't know," Rouge replied. The sky began to drift outwards as Sonic looked to the bat. The hedgehog's eyes still weren't accustomed to this oddness, but the bat didn't think anything wrong of this. The sky began to throb in and out slightly, with such a distortion that it made Sonic have to sit down and focus on the ground.

"You okay?" Rouge asked, her attention on the sick looking hedgehog.

"I'll be fine," Sonic replied, "I'm just not used to this world."

Rouge looked dismissive, but watched as Sonic's face began to grow more and more nauseous. This was a hedgehog she knew could run at nearly the speed of sound, having difficulty with motion. Rouge had never questioned reality, she had never had need to, but she knew this was weird.

"Sonic, come in Sonic" beckoned a voice from Sonic's wrist. It was Tails, making contact through the wrist communicators.

"What is it li'l buddy?" Sonic asked, causing both him and Tails to wonder just why Sonic had said that. They both dismissed it immediately, both having more pressing issues.

"Where are you? We need to get off the ship immediately, we've found Dawn, she's fine, but unconscious, but the ships going to explode"

"I'm not on-board, don't ask me how, but I'm now on Angel Island," Sonic replied. He could see Tails' confused face, but knew he didn't have the time to explain it all to the kitsune, "Get out of there as soon as you can, and meet me here."

Rouge waited until Sonic's transmission to Tails had ended before she questioned him. "Why are they all coming to _my_ island?"

"Firstly," Sonic replied, "because I can't fly off, and I've absolutely no idea what I did to get here," he said, as he saw Rouge's face slip. The bat had no choice but to allow the hedgehog this much.

"Secondly," he continued, "because maybe together all of us can make sense of just what's going on, and maybe we can put a stop to it."

"But there's nothing to put a stop to hedgehog!" Rouge yelled angrily, "This is how it is, and this is how it goes. We are in reality, and I can't allow you to fire the eclipse canon on a whim that something's not right."

"Relax," Sonic said, "It's only one reality we'd be destroying."

"That's what I'm worried about," Rouge muttered under her breath.


	35. Daunting Haunting

_It took everyone a good half hour to arrive on the Floating Island, but once they were we all sat down, myself, the bat, the three tailed kitsune, an unconscious winged cat, the pink hedgehog with the crossbow, and the two dimensional cartoon character. It was one of those things you genuinely could not make up, such an ecclectric cast of characters all in one place, for a common cause. We had been sat around for about a further hour when Dawn finally woke up._

"Urrgh, my head hurts," the cat muttered as she rose to her feet. Everyone stopped talking immediately and gave her there full attention. Five pairs of eyes focused on the green cat as she stood there, bruised and bewildered, "What's going on?" she asked, clutching her head slightly.

There was a moment of awkward silence, before Amy spoke. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the cat said, "I've suffered worse."

"Do you think you can still cast?" Rouge asked.

"Yes?" Dawn said, unsure of quite why they were asking her to use magic, or what for, "Why?"

"We've spent the last hour or so going over Sonic's 'evidence'" Amy replied. Sonic looked annoyed by the sarcasm, "There's nothing conclusive to say he's got it right, just his word."

"So?" Dawn asked, not sure where this was going.

"We need you to find someone," Silver continued, "Assuming you can find them, we can get some answers."

"Who?" Dawn replied, "And why?"

"Listen," Rouge interrupted, "Long story short, we've all been thinking Sonic has lost it, y'know, mentally. We need to finda dead bat called 'Tikal', who, according to ancient prophecy created the Servers of Chaos, who were responsible for protecting the Sol Emeralds. Sonic here thinks he is one of them, and is convinced that realities messed up and blah blah blah" Rouge summed up, skipping a lot of important details she thought Dawn knew already.

"If we can find her," Sonic replied, "She can confirm my story, and we can fix reality to how it should be."

Dawn looked at Sonic and began to reply, "I don't know..."

"Please," The hedgehog said desperately, "I will drop this if this doesn't work," Sonia's eyes lowered to the floor, "I just need to know for certain now. I don't even know myself how things are meant to be, I just know that I want reality back, I want my life back. Please..."

Dawn conceded, "Alright, I'll try."

The six of them made there way into an ancient chamber deep within Angel Island. There they saw a specially built room, with intricate patterns on the floor. Rouge instructed them to sit around Dawn in the middle, with Sonic facing directly south. Everyone else sat around accordingly, with Silver to Sonic;s immediate left. Sonic was still annoyed that the others hadn't accepted that fact that they themselves knew Silver to be fictional as reason enough that the world was to fault. He mentally cursed Tails for mentioning multiple dimensional theory.

Rouge began lighting torches one by one around the room, ending with one directly behind Sonic. As the room was lit up Sonic could only stare at the intricate carvings and decoration on the chambers walls. It was obvious that this place had not been used for some time, but that also this was not the first of such rituals that would be performed here. And yet, Sonic couldn't overlook the fact that, even here, in the depths of ancient society, things weren't right. He overlooked the lack of arms on any of the sculptures, but he was sure the fact that every drawing was rotated on it's side, was to do with reality being messed up. Unsurprisingly nobody else batted an eyelid at such a detail.

"I hope this works," Amy said as Rouge was finishing up with the stuff required. The bat placed a small pool of dirt in the centre of where everyone was sat, and instructed Dawn to stand on it. Dawn nodded, and faced Sonic as Rouge took her place.

"Spirits of the past," Dawn called out. She stood facing Sonic, her eyes focused. Sonic had seen this only once before, and he still remembered it well, "We call unto thee. Spirits of the present, wish to you to be free."

A cold wind howled through the chamber. Sonic watched as Amy became visibly startled. Rouge and Silver were unaffected, though Sonic was also sure they weren't entirely calm. Only Tails looked calm, and that was mostly because he too had seen this before.

"The one infront of us, he calls himself Sonic, wishes to contact the departed," Dawn continued, "We here gather here today, as those who call him his friend, those who love him, those who care deeply about him, to help him make his voice be heard to the spirit world."

The torches began to flicker. The colours darted from orange to green. Sonic thought this was magic, but since nobody else seemed to react to this, he couldn't be sure if this was Dawn's spell, or if reality was once again messing with him. He tried his best to ignore him, focusing instead on the winged cat, now hovering in the air in front of where he sat.

"Spirits," Dawn called out, "We ask of you. Bring us the one we seek. Bring us Tikal, the first Server of Chaos! Let us speak with her now, so we may bring peace to our friend Sonic."

All the torches blew out. The chamber flooded with darkness slowly, as light itself had been slowed to a crawl. Sonic was convinced this was part of the universe messing around, as he'd never seen this before. He looked around, noticing everyone else was transfixed on the appearance of a translucent duck. "I am Tikal the Echidna," the duck said solemnly.

"No, you're not the one!" Sonic yelled, "The girl I saw was a bee."

"In the asylum?" Tikal asked, "I'm afraid that was me."

One by one the group made the connection. As Sonic had said, he had met Tikal. This meant that somehow, in some way at least, Sonic was right. Sonic was the only one who couldn't accept it.

"Why are you a duck?" he asked impatiently, "You were a bee, now you're a duck."

"You used to be a black hedgehog," Tikal replied, "And I've used that for justification before if I recall rightly."

"So does this mean Sonic's right?" Amy asked, unsure what to make of all this.

"I'm afraid so," Tikal answered, "The world as you know it, is not how the world should be, and Sonic is the only one who can set it right."


	36. Accepted Rejected

_To hear those words at last was a great weight off my chest. To finally be told and have accepted that I was right, and I wasn't losing my mind caused immense relief to me. While there were still many things that needed explaining, I finally had a source of answers, and could finally get help in setting reality right. More importantly though, I had the help and support of my friends to see me through, and prevent this from being an entirely solo effort. With the six of us, and each of our talents, we had a very good chance of stopping the Monsters of Chaos, and getting things right._

"So what about the other six? Can't the rest of the servers help?" Tails asked, trying to establish a plan.

"The seven servers are split. Myself and Sonic are here now, but I can only help in this limited capacity." Tikal replied.

"And we know Shadow's one of the servers," Sonic continued, "and we also know he won't help. Whatever he's gaining from this, it's obviously too good for him to give up."

"As for the others," Tikal answered, "They won't be of much use to anyone now. In the future, the servers will be key to saving the world, but this is not their world to save, and hence it is the duty of the Prime Server to fulfill his duty, to get the Chaos back in the correct order. This was the duty of the Prime Server alone."

Throughout all the discussions Dawn had said nothing. She had remained focused in one spot, all her power going in to keeping the connection with Tikal open. Rouge had kept one eye on watching Dawn, making sure she didn't collapse from exhaustion. Now Dawn was beginning to struggle, something Rouge was quick to point out.

"One last question," Sonic pleaded, knowing full well he was now putting Dawn at risk, "How do I stop it?"

"I can't tell you. I do not know," Tikal answered, "But the Monsters of Chaos were trapped in the Chaos Emeralds, if the Sol Emeralds being destroyed is making things worse, then you need to make some new emeralds to contain the released Chaos. Use the Master Emerald Sonic, use it to create a new set of emeralds. But remember," Tikal said, her voice getting really faint, as she began to disappear, "You need to create seven, or it won't be enough to..."

Tikal disappeared as Dawn collapsed to the ground. The torches returned to a blue flame, tinting the walls orange. One by one the group left the chamber, Sonic carrying Dawn, and Rouge exiting last, extinguishing the flames as she left.

"I can't believe the worlds all a lie," Amy said, trying to make sense of it all. She hadn't wanted to say too much while Dawn was summoning, and Tikal was explaining things to Sonic, but now she felt the need to see what everyone else was thinking.

"Believe it," Sonic replied.

"But really," Silver continued, "Destroying the Master Emerald will fix everything, so it's not a problem. We just need to find it, and then break it into seven pieces. Bish bash bosh, every thing's hunky dory, and we can all go back to how things are meant to be."

"Slight problem," Sonic hesitated. He was pretty sure he could guess how people would take the news, "The Master Emerald currently isn't just a giant gem. It's actually the planet Earth."

The blue hedgehog looked at the shock on everyone's face. It was one thing to go destroy a priceless artifact of an ancient empire, another thing entirely to go destroy a planet.

"You can't do it Sonic!" Amy wailed, "You can't destroy the world!"

"What choice do I have?" Sonic answered, "You all said I was right, and the world is messed up. Which mean we have to fix it."

"No, we don't," replied Tails, "Listen Sonic, I accept that some really weird stuff has happened to you lately, I even accept that this isn't how reality is meant to be, and I was all for you trying something which might fix it. But I don't think I can back you in this. You're talking about destroying the world because you think it'd bring back your reality. But what if this is reality Sonic?"

"Tails' right," Silver echoed, "What if it doesn't work? What if all you accomplish is destroying everything?"

"What if it kills you, or us for that matter?" Amy continued, "I'm with these two, I can't let you set about destroying everything."

"I still don't see why you can't just accept this reality the way it is. If Shadow can do it, and can remember everything how he once knew it to be as well, I don't see why you can't," Rouge finished.

"Okay," Sonic relented, "But answer me one question."

"What?"

"Am I still known as the fastest thing alive?"

Amy began to answer, "Yes, but I don't -"

With that Sonic was gone. Amy didn't even finish her sentence, as the hedgehog had already became a blur on the horizon. It was only a few seconds later that the group registered that Sonic was still carrying Dawn.

Sonic dashed through the overgrowth of Angel Islands forests. He headed all around, convinced he knew where to find the eclipse canon. Luck was on his side this time, as he found it on only his second lap of the island. He knew he didn't have long before he was found, but nevertheless he was prepared for this. What he wasn't prepared for, however was that the person who found him would actually be non other than Doctor Eggman.

"Well well," Eggman grinned, "It looks like we've both reached a similar conclusion. Tell me, what finally made you snap? Was it the messed up physics? Perhaps it was the fact that your friends abandoned you? Maybe you just thought things were taking too long? Answer me hedeghog, and maybe I'll help you destroy all of reality..."


	37. Nearly Really

_Eggman just stood there, grinning at me. I couldn't figure out what scheme he was trying this time, but I doubted he was going to help out of the kindness of his own heart. And yet, even though I knew his intentions were malicious, I was willing to take any help I could get right now, and if working with Eggman would get everything back to normal, then I had to work with him. I didn't enjoy any part of this, but I really had no other choice._

"You've known from the start, haven't you?" Sonic asked the obese human.

"Believe me, I have, and I'm not alone in that," Eggman laughed.

"What are you giving Shadow for this?" Sonic asked.

"Nothing," Eggman replied coldly. He stood calmly as he faced his biggest adversary, a very smug smile on his face, "Shadow agrees this is the best course of action. Even I admit it's a better plan than when I tricked Knuckles into letting me have access to the flying islands defences."

Those words seemed odd to Sonic, but he couldn't put his finger on why. He watched carefully as Eggman continued, illuminated by the glow of the Eclipse Canon behind him.

"Lets face it Sonic, you can't win here. There's only one emerald left, and it's in my hand here," the scientist said, revealing a large orange gem. He twirled it in the light, "Too bad really, to think I once had all seven in warps of confusion, and now there is but one."

"I can still beat you yet Eggman," Sonic said, his body just itching to smack the smug scientist square in the jaw, just to knock that all knowing smirk off his face.

"But of course," Eggman replied, "You've blown up many of my machines, be they giant space stations to tiny badniks, capable of nothing more than being a flying light. You even destroyed my greatest machine, Metal Dawn," Eggman paused, watching Sonic's mind flood with hazy memoires of his chaotic fight with Dawn on the freeway, where he had killed her.

"Yet no matter what of my machines you destroy now, you simply cannot win," Eggman chuckled, "You could attack me right now if you wanted, I'm unarmed, unprotected, it would be so easy for you. But you'd still be here, in a world that's not of yours. That is the beauty of this plan, you were the one who put yourself in it. You broke several of the emeralds yourself. Not even my grandmother Maria thought of that."

"Your grandmother?" Sonic asked inquisitively.

Eggman nodded, "The woman who built the Ark, assuming you can even remember that," he laughed.

"Gerald built the ark!" Sonic shouted, a sudden realisation coming over him, "You don't know reality any better than I do!"

Eggman said nothing. He turned away from the hedgehog, staring at the Sol Emerald, "What does it matter," he relented, "I still have the upper hand, I know that unlike you I'm capable of functioning in this admittedly abnormal world, but most importantly, I have backup to assist me in defeating you."

As if on cue, four pairs of eyes materialised out of thin air. Five bodies formed around those eyes, each of them a slightly different shade of red, each of them a hazy and ghostly figure, all around Sonic's height, all with long dreadlocks dangling off what Sonic thought was there heads, all looking intently in Sonic's direction.

"You see Sonic," Eggman continued, "when this began, and you were running around aimlessly asking for answers, I did my research. I studied the creatures you see before you, I looked in to the legends, and they were real." Eggman said, his voice flaring up to emphasise this last point.

Sonic stood his ground, ready to move at a moments notice, "The Monsters of Chaos," he said. Sonic watched them nod, each of them agreeing to his observation, "But there are only four."

"That's because three of us were able to escape early," Eggman answered, his smirk beginning to annoy Sonic.

"'Three of us'?" Sonic repeated, "but that means..."

"Yes," Eggman interrupted, "I am one of the Monsters of Chaos. Fitting in a way, you, one of the seven servers, myself one of the seven monsters. It was destined to be."

"There's no such thing Eggman!" Sonic yelled, unsure himself whether he actually believed it, or if he was deliberately opposing Eggman's new found view on what was supposed to be. Deep inside Sonic was troubled, a lot of this information was difficult to take in, and each answer just lead to more and more questions. If Eggman was a monster, why was he human, when none of the others were? Where were the other two? Just what happened to make everything so mixed up? Why couldn't Eggman remember everything?

Before Sonic could ask, the four ghostly monsters had begun advancing, "We can't let you keep talking," the first one said.

"It would ruin everything," the second one continued.

"And we can't let that happen" the third finished.

"But you're forgetting something," Sonic replied with a smug grin over his face. Eggman could see the hedgehog had a plan, but he wasn't going to do anything until he could be sure just what the blue hedgehog was thinking, "I've got the exit right behind me, and I'm the fastest thing alive!"

With that Sonic made a dash for the exit of the cave. He looked back to see the Monsters of Chaos unable to keep pace, but Eggman remained unflinching.

"Found you," Dawn's voice rang out, as she stood in the entrance to the cave. To Sonic's surprise she tackled the speeding hedgehog and sent him flying backwards, where the four monsters caught up to him and held him down. As Sonic fought to get free, he asked just what was going on.

"Sonic, you poor fool," Eggman taunted, as he was held in place by the four ghostly Monsters of Chaos, "Did you real think that Dawn was on your side? There's something you should probably know, she's one of the seven Monsters of Chaos. Infact she's the one who got this whole thing started, long before I even knew of what I really was."

"I'm sorry Sonic," Dawn said quietly, "But this just has to be. I didn't want it to come to this, really," she whispered quietly to Sonic, as the other monsters held him in place, "you just left me no choice."


	38. Spurned Return

_So there I was surrounded by six of the seven Monsters of Chaos. I was sure it wouldn't be too long before the seventh put in an appearance either. Yet they didn't want to kill me, far from it, they wanted to keep me alive. I didn't have much hope of escape, and I didn't have a plan to get through this situation either. All I could do now was wait, and hope to improvise something from the situation at hand, and hope something came along to my advantage. I just had to hope it didn't take too long._

"It's funny hedgehog," Eggman smiled gleefully, "For so many years you've used the power of the Chaos Emeralds, the very power I have craved, against me. You've defeated me time and time again."

"How do you know that Eggman," Sonic retorted, "Your memories as bad as mine are, for all you know Dawn beat you, how I remember it, and maybe Dawn will beat you again."

"Don't be so sure Sonic," Eggman spat, "Dawn's on my side."

Dawn said nothing. Sonic could only watch as she dutifully carried out the tasks she was assigned by Eggman. Sonic had no idea just what was going on, but the monsters were modifying the Eclipse Canon. Sonic had seen them attach two similar devices. He recognised both of them as the NOCC and the ROSC. While Sonic didn't know how they worked, he knew they were the devices used to change reality every time a Sol Emerald had been destroyed.

"Is this why I'm still alive?" Sonic asked, putting two and two together, "You really think I'll tell you how to find the Master Emerald?"

"We already know," began one of the monsters, it's back to Sonic as it lifted some more machinery into place.

"We were there," another continued, as it connected several wires.

"It's the Earth itself," said Dawn, "Remember, I summoned Tikal."

"Why'd you do it?" Sonic asked the cat; his wrists beginning to ach from being chained to a wall.

"Because it was the only way to get you here."

"No, why'd you pretend to love me?" Sonic asked, his head looking down.

Dawn walked over slowly, The other monsters continued setting up the machines under Eggman's orders. Eggman himself was busy dealing with computer readings. She leant over, and whispered quietly into the blue hedgehogs ear, "I'm not pretending," she said sadly, before she walked away.

Sonic didn't say anything. This one statement gave Sonic hope. He began to focus on what was being said by Eggman, tying to take in what the monsters were doing. Most of the theoretical science was way over his head, but Sonic was well aware of which bits of machinery were likely to explode violently if he attacked them, and which ones wouldn't. In his mind, this was all Sonic needed to know. He just needed an opportunity to escape.

Luck was on the hedgehog 's side that day, or at least what you could call luck under the circumstances. Sonic had to admit he hadn't planned for it, but the sudden appearance of four more anthro's was just what he needed.

"Eggman!" Rouge yelled, as she ran into the cave that housed the Eclipse Canon, "What are you doing on my island?"

"Hmph," The doctor scowled, "I knew a cavalry would show up sooner or later. Monsters, deal with these pests."

Almost immediately the four ghostly figures began to advance upon the anthros. Amy fired several shots from her crossbow, all of them launching straight through the creatures.

"There non-corporeal," Rouge told her sarcastically.

"I'd guessed," Amy replied, as one of them lunged towards her. A psychic blast from a two dimensional hedgehog saved the girl from the attack, and Amy fell back. Silver was the most effective against the Monsters of Chaos, his psychic attacks restraining them in place, but there inability to be touched made combat difficult for both Amy and Rouge. Either way, they were making a good distraction, as Tails snuck into the cave, and headed towards the tied up hedgehog.

Sonic watched as one by one the figures slowly attacked each of the heroes, while Tails untied the hedgehog.. Sonic expected this, Tails had never been one for fighting, not without a machine to pilot anyway. Now of course, Sonic was glad for the assistance the three tailed fox was offering, and gladly took it without hesitation.

"Cheers, bro, I owe you one," Sonic thanked Tails.

"I owe you many more," the fox replied, "now get out there and help save the day."

"In a sec," Sonic replied, "Tails, you got any idea what those machines are?" He said pointing at several large cylindrical canisters filled with wires. They took up the entirety of a wall, but didn't seem to be connected to anything else in the room.

The fox looked at where the hedgehog was pointing, and had to admit he was clueless. "If we win this, I'll take a proper look," he replied.

"Where's Dawn and Eggman?" Sonic asked.

"They went off down that corridor, further into the canon's core, but..."

"Thanks," Sonic said, as he sped off towards the corridor. He got about ten feet down when a door snapped shut behind him.

"Venting in progress." Came a simulated computer voice over the speakers.

Sonic looked around him, looking for the entrance points of the gas, so he knew where to avoid as he moved. He listened carefully, and heard several hacks and coughs from behind him. He turned around and realised the venting wasn't going on in the corridor but in the entrance. Sonic could see nothing, but he knew what was going on. The gas was being vented in the room behind him, the room that he had just been in, and everybody else was still in. Sonic had just left his friends straight at the mercy of the monsters, and there was nothing he could do but listen, as each of his friends lost consciousness in the room behind.


	39. Lab Blab

_I was determined to get to Eggman now. He had all the answers, and I was going to make him reveal all to me. My plan was simple, I was going to go in and start smashing everything to pieces. It had worked before, and I was sure it could work again. _

Sonic knew he was getting closer to his answers now. In his mind, Sonic wasn't particularly fussed that he'd left his friends to fend off against the monsters. He knew thy would thank him once he saved the day again. Sonic ran down as the corridor became more and more artificial looking, until he reached a large metal door.

"I bet it's locked," the hedgehog said, "And I'm guessing," he continued, looking at a numerical keypad, "that this is how you open it. I'm no archaeologist, but this probably wasn't built by the Bats millennia ago like the rest of this island was," he said aloud to no-one in particular.

The hedgehog curled himself into a ball on the floor, and carefully revved himself on the spot. Feeling the floor under him get quicker and quicker, Sonic began counting quickly in his mind, before releasing the spin, and jumping. His body slammed hard against the keypad. The device broke immediately, and the door slid open.

Sonic fully stepped into the room. It was a large metallic chamber, with a glowing core in the middle. Complicated machinery was positioned all around. The hedgehog noticed an Egg-pod in one of the corners, and quickly traced his line of sight onto the obese man sat at a desk nearby.

"Ah Sonic, glad you could join us," Eggman said sarcastically, "Where's your friends?"

Before Sonic could answer, Eggman had swung a computer screen around. On the screen, Sonic could see the unconscious bodies of Rouge, Silver, Tails, and Amy. The monsters stood gleefully over them, patiently waiting.

"Once again you didn't think Sonic." Eggman taunted. "You just left them there, because you were so obsessed with just knowing why and how things are supposed to be."

"You couldn't just accept it," Dawn continued, but with much less cruelty in her tone than Eggman's words had possessed, "I asked you to be content, just once, for me, but you just kept picking at it."

Sonic watched as the monsters lifted the unconscious bodies into four cylindrical devices . Sonic recognised several of the pieces as the machines as the ones he'd seen earlier.

"The devices you were wondering about," Eggman gleefully announced, "Are what are going to allow the monsters to take your friends body's and get the freedom they so richly deserve. All we need is that last Sol emerald, and I can assure you, we know where it is. Or, we could steal your plan, and destroy the master emerald. That too would give them the same end result."

"Fair dues," Sonic said calmly, "Do whatever you like. I'll even help."

Eggman was speechless, "What's the catch?"

"Oh there's no catch," Sonic replied, "I know when I'm beat. But like you said, you can't kill me for some reason, and you've just gassed everyone I care about, yet I genuinely don't care."

Eggman sat dumbfounded, "Have I finally crushed the last of your resolve then Sonic?" he asked curiously.

"I guess so," the hedgehog sighed, slowly walking towards the human.

Dawn stepped up from her seat, primed to focus should Sonic attack. Waving his hand, Eggman made her lower her guard. "So then Sonic," Eggman asked, "what was the straw that broke your back?"

"This whole thing," Sonic relented, "I cannot figure out what's going on anymore, and I'd give anything for answers about now. Even with all the explanations I've had, I'm still coming up blank. There's so much going on here, and even I can't make sense of what's real and what's not. I don't think you know either, but you at least seem to know who does know, so the least I can do is try to get some of those answers."

"I'll give you the answers hedgehog," Eggman smiled. Sonic could tell the doctor was enjoying this.

"Good," Sonic smiled, "Cos I just need to know one thing," the hedgehog said slowly, his voice getting quieter as he approached Eggman. "Have you always been so fat and gullible?" Sonic smiled, as he leapt straight over where Eggman was sitting. His body flew forwards, his feet landing hard on the ground, and he leapt immediately, curving his body again, and focusing his movement towards anything mechanical.

"Stop him!" Eggman yelled, as the hedgehog began destroying computers and machines.

"You're a fool Eggman," Sonic grinned, as he collided himself against more machinery, causing more mayhem and destruction, "First you show me we're in a consequence free world, then you tell me you need me alive regardless, then you try to use what you're doing to my friends to get to me. Why should I care when you've already shown me I don't need to? I could've killed them all myself if I had wanted to back there, but I didn't. Why do that when I can have more fun trashing your stuff?"

The hedgehog began to really pick up pace in the room. Darting between machines Sonic was impossible for Dawn's spells to track . The winged cat tried every wide area spell she knew, but she couldn't get a fix on the hedgehog bouncing around erratically at top speed.

"Bet you wish she was still a robot eh Eggman? Maybe she could've got missile lock then." The hedgehog taunted, as the lab rapidly became more and more trashed.

Eggman didn't say anything. Sonic had noticed the Egg-pod hovering out of reach, and saw it come down for Eggman to get in. Sonic launched quickly at the device, bouncing off it twice as Eggman desperately tried to protect himself from the attack. This Egg-pod was unmodified, but was too high up for Sonic to reach. Alarms had been blaring through the complex for a while, but Sonic hadn't been giving them any attention since the first one. A small metal patch in the floor opened up, and Eggman dived inside, closing the lid behind him, before Sonic could enter.

Dawn stopped trying to attack. "Sonic stop" she asked calmly. Sonic did so immediately, he knew that tone too well, it was the tone that said he would be in trouble if he didn't listen.

"I'm waiting," Sonic said, tapping his foot impatiently, "You going to explain anything or not?"

"Fine," Dawn said, "Yes, I am one of the monsters. You know that. I'm sorry, but before Eggman was listening in, I couldn't give anything away, or it would've ruined his plan."

"But why are you helping me now if you're on his side?"

"Because I love you Sonic. I can't do what the others want me to. You're a forbidden fruit, and all the time we spent together, where I was supposed to pretending to love you, you grew on me in that time. I wasn't planning on it, but you showed me such kindness, a kindness I had never before seen. Yes I want to be free too, but I don't want it how they want it, not anymore."

Sonic was about to ask what she meant by that freedom when the floor began to slide backwards. Sonic and Dawn both braced themselves, as they could see the gigantic eclipse canon, pointing directly at the Earth, with Eggman ready at the controls.


	40. Slight Flight

_So there we were, me and Dawn versus Eggman. In my mind, this was like old times, but if everything I had heard over the last few days had been true, this would actually the first time I would be fighting with her. But with everything that had gone on, with all the double crossing, could I really trust her? She had told me she'd loved me, and was opposed to Eggman, but at the same time her end goal was the same as Eggman's, something that still didn't make sense. Over and over I had heard that the monsters wanted freedom, but how exactly would any of this bring them closer to there goal? As I went into this fight, that was the one thing at the front of the mind._

Compartments opened up in a futile attempt to relocate the now heavily damaged equipment away from the area. What wasn't scooped up fell down into the crevice, where Sonic could see the ground bellow. It fell into the ocean, many hundred miles bellow, creating a splash above Sonic. He felt water trickling down the left side of his face as he focused intently on what was coming up.

Eggman's craft was about as tall as a five story building, but three of those stories hovered bellow the floor line on the edge of the room that Sonic & Dawn were stood on. The craft hovered loosely in a hole carved into Angel Island. It bobbed up and down slightly, but mostly hovered in place. It was partially painted black, but much of the paint had been scratched off to reveal a metallic red underneath. At the bottom Sonic could see a gigantic laser canon, focused upon the Earth, but Sonic could not see any other form of defence. Of course Sonic assumed that there had to be one, otherwise Eggman wouldn't leave it hovering where it was.

The floor eventually stopped, leaving Sonic a relatively narrow platform that circled the device. The only entrance to this room was now sealed shut, held in place by what Dawn told him was a twelve inch thick protective steel shutter. The only way out was through the hole in the bottom, and Sonic didn't exactly fancy taking his chances on the messed up physics working in his favour for a change.

Light filled the room as the ceiling opened. It split in two, sliding the ceiling apart. A few rocks fell through the gap, showing Sonic a dim glowing grew shield covering the compartment upon the top where Eggman sat. The ceiling opened wider, and the gigantic craft began to lift itself upwards.

"He's getting away!" Sonic yelled.

"I know," Dawn replied, "But there's nothing I can do."

"You're wearing a jet-pack," sonic reminded the cat, "Lets fly after him."

"But," Dawn sighed, "I don't know what to do."

"We just go after him, like always,"

"Sonic," Dawn continued, "I'm supposed to stop you. I _have _ to stop you. You're the Prime Server, I'm one of the Monsters of Chaos. But I can't bring myself to do it."

"But we have to stop Eggman!" Sonic yelled, knowing he was running out of time.

"Why?" Dawn asked, "What about his plan do we need to stop?"

Sonic was dumbstruck, he didn't have a proper answer, he just knew that beating Eggman was important. In all the restructuring, and reformation, it was the thing he was second most sure of. Unfortunately, the one thing he had been most sure of wasn't convinced. Dawn continued her point, allowing Eggman to get further and further away.

"Listen Dawn," Sonic pleaded, "at the very least, do you think it's good for your freedom to let a madman run off with a gigantic world destroying laser?"

"I guess not," Dawn finally relented, "But I can't let you win either."

"Lets just go, we can argue over which of us wins after we make sure Eggman loses!" Sonic replied.

Sonic grabbed hold of Dawn as she turned on the jet-pack. Sonic looked closely at Dawn as he waited for the feeling of the floor under his feet to go. After several seconds, Sonic realised that even though he still felt like he was stood on the ground, the ground was now several hundred feet bellow. The hedgehog mentally cursed this reality, as he held on tighter to the jet-pack propelled cat.

The duo landed on some floating ruins. Sonic recognised them as the Sky Sanctuary Zone, and a weird sensation of dread filled him. He knew he'd been here before, but he could not place quite how, or what it was that was familiar. However Sonic was well aware of the giant laser canon Eggman was piloting not too far from here.

"Uh-oh," Dawn said, as her jet-pack beeped, "We've over stressed this."

"Give it here," Sonic said, as he took hold of the jet-pack He urged Dawn to stand back, and began to spin on his heels, swinging the backpack around. The blue hedgehog became a blur to look at, before he stopped himself and let the device go flying.

It collided hard with the canon, exploding on impact. Sonic could see a few parts come loose, and could just about make out Eggman scowling.

"You impetuous fool," Eggman said over a loudspeaker, "You'll pay for this," he announced, as he moved the device slowly closer to the pair. Sonic tensed up, waiting for Eggman to get in range. He looked to Dawn, who remained oddly calm.

Eggman's craft drew closer, but remained out of reach of the hedgehog. The scientist knew full well Sonic would never reach him, taunting Sonic to that effect. The hedgehog looked to Dawn, "I need your help," he admitted, "I can't save the world if you don't help me."

"Defy me," Eggman shouted to the cat, "And you will remained trapped forever inside your prison, alone. There's still one Sol Emerald, I can put you back in that, even in this twisted world. Just because you've a body, don't think it's yours forever."

"I would rather spend another eternity in the emeralds," The cat yelled, "Than live in this freedom."

"Very well," Eggman gleefully laughed, "Prepare to spend eternity suffering."

Sonic looked at the gap, "Dawn, what do you mean?" he asked.

Dawn didn't answer the question. She didn't even get the chance. Sonic could only watch as a intense blue beam fire from Eggman's vehicle and collided with Dawn's body.. She convulsed briefly, before she fell to the ground. Sonic ran over to her body, only to have to jump away as a missile impacted nearby, sending debris everywhere. Sonic watched as the third one struck hard into Dawn's body, disintegrating it. A metallic arm landed next to Sonic; limp and lifeless.

"She'll be fine Sonic," Eggman gloated, "Her body's a bit broken, but she'll be fine in here," he laughed, showing the last of the Sol Emeralds.

"I've broke the other seven," Sonic yelled.

"Break this one, and there's none left Sonic," Eggman reminded the blue hedgehog, "And when they're all broken, the Monsters are free forever."

Sonic bit his tongue. He held tightly to Dawn's arm, and wondered what she would do in this situation.


	41. Lacking Attacking

_Those blasted emeralds had caused so much trouble. Even before the events of the last couple of weeks began, Dawn and I had spent years getting them back from Eggman's nefarious machines, or having to save the day from a problem they had caused. While they've been as much of a help as a hindrance, I still think things would be a lot better if they had never existed in the first place. Certainly would've saved me a lot of trouble._

Eggman mocked Sonic for the death of Dawn. He continued relentlessly, showing absolutely no pity for a hedgehog who had now lost everything. In hindsight, Eggman would regret this, Sonic was sure of that much at least. The hedgehog didn't have any plan to destroy the device, save the day, or even save those he cared about. But two things were very clear to Sonic now in this world of confusion; firstly that he had to fight and win, and secondly that it didn't matter how he won, or just who got in his way.

Eggman was rather nonchalant. He had the last emerald, he had both the NOCC and the ROSC, and he was currently piloting a device designed to destroy the world. He also had four Monsters of Chaos on his side, willing to do his bidding. He had everything he needed to succeed exactly where he needed it.

Sonic looked carefully at the craft. Aside from the obvious canon, and the missile launcher which had since ducked back inside the craft, it had no obvious weapons. But it had already fired missiles from a hidden compartment, and Sonic doubted that was it's only defence. Sonic could however tell that it was a very slow moving target, which was at least one advantage to someone who always had speed on there side.

The hedgehog surveyed his surroundings, looking for anything that might serve as a way to draw himself closer to the colossal craft. Nothing immediately obvious came to his eye, but there was a lot more of the zone scattered about above, and the higher the hedgehog got, the more he could see. Starting his sprint, Sonic jumped into the air, hitting a spring, and landing on the ledge above. From here Sonic found the path split left or right, and Sonic decided to take the narrower left path.

He changed his mind seconds later, as the path was eliminated by another batch of missiles. The debris hung around here, moving very slowly away from the centre of the explosion. Sonic wasn't going to take a narrow path with missiles flying at him, and took the more solid looking right path. It led on to a red spring at the end, propelling Sonic up another level. The blue hedgehog looked to Eggman's craft as it moved closer. At it's current speed, Sonic was sure he could make it to the top of the zone with time to spare before the vehicle was in striking range. With any luck, Sonic thought, he'd land on the top, and be able to jump back off for Sky Sanctuary. In his head it was pretty simple.

Another wave of missiles flew past, Sonic jumping up at the last possible second spared him from being blown to smithereens, but it had destroyed the obvious path upwards. Sonic looked around, and spotted a curved wall behind him. Though it would mean putting his back to Eggman, and thus not seeing what the madman was about to do, it was the only way up, and Sonic had to take it. He waited carefully, hoping to time it just right.

"What's the matter Sonic?" Eggman yelled at the hedgehog, "Grew tired of running at last? Allow me to give you a helping hand!" he laughed as he launched another flurry of missiles.

Sonic was prepared for these, and with minimal effort, cleared them all. They flew past, but Sonic was too busy to see where they'd collided. Curling himself up as he had done many times before, he revved up the curve in the wall, and shot himself skywards. Spinning rapidly, he did the best he could to judge a landing on a platform above him.

His toes wobbled on the edge as he landed, and he needed to jump forwards to correct himself, but the blue hedgehog had made his way up. He was now at the same eye level as Eggman was in the Eclipse Canon, but Eggman was slowly drawing higher. Sonic knew he had to draw Eggman within range if he was ever going to hit him.

"You're such a rubbish shot lard butt," Sonic yelled, "You couldn't hit me if you were five inches away!"

Sonic kept running, knowing full well that Eggman's ego wouldn't allow the scientist to just let it go. Sonic looked to the Eclipse Canon as it moved closer. Sonic smirked, and kept moving, running to his left, and leaping up crumbling, moss covered platforms, in a bid to make a jump that would allow Sonic to stop the mad scientist.

With some precision jumping Sonic made his way to the bottom of the last tower in Sky Sanctuary Zone, a fleeting memory of a blue robot came to his mind briefly, but Sonic didn't have time to think about it as another set of missiles blasted towards him. The hedgehog ducked down as low as he could go, as the missiles screamed over his head, and into the wall behind him. He kept moving, desperately moving forwards and up.

The path was a spiral around the tower. As he ran, Sonic could see Eggman drawing closer, and as he ran higher, Sonic could see that the craft was now bellow him. As he reached the top, Sonic looked over, another couple of seconds, the hedgehog thought, and Eggman's newest craft would be within striking distance.

Sonic began contemplating his jump. He'd have to hit the craft very carefully, there was very little around that would catch him if he bounced off it wrong. One miss-step, and the hedgehog was likely to plummet to his death. But the window of opportunity was small, and Sonic had nothing to lose. The hedgehog leapt, narrowly dodging a missile that roared past him, and curled into a ball. The momentum carried the hedgehog forwards, towards his intended target.

The hedgehog watched as he drew closer. The arc of his jump had peaked, and he wasn't close enough. Sonic closed his eyes, knowing he'd just fallen short of his target, and he was pretty sure there was no solid land close enough for him to land on with his current momentum.


	42. Small Fall

_Everything passed through my mind at that second. From the time when I was six, playing with Adventures of Silver the Hedgehog action figures with Dawn, to the first time I blew up an Egg Pawn without any assistance. My entire life flashed past me, and I dreaded what was to come next. Everything I had done couldn't have been for naught could it? I didn't want to face my mortality, but I had to wonder, all these years I'd lived, could they really all be a lie? But then again, if they were real, then what did I have left?_

Sonic's spins collided against the bottom third of the eclipse canon. The hedgehog hadn't caused any significant damage to the device, but the force of the impact forced him to bounce off. It all happened too quickly for the hedgehog, and there was no way Sonic could stop himself from bouncing off. Throughout it all, Sonic kept his eyes closed, as he felt himself hit solid steel again. His body had settled, and aside from being a bit sore from a missed landing, the hedgehog was fine.

Sonic got up slowly, wondering why he hadn't been killed by what he thought was a very long fall. He looked around him, an erratic an undecipherable sky around, with some moss covered stones above him. Sonic was sure this was the Sky Sanctuary Zone, but it looked different, like he was looking at it wrong. It was only as he began moving that he realised where he had landed; the hedgehog was now stood on the side of the Eclipse Canon.

"Figures that a canon less than one one-billionth the size of the planet would have it's own centre of gravity," Eggman sighed as Sonic began experimenting with movement around the vertical shaft. The scientist watched Sonic on camera's, keeping tabs on roughly where Sonic was.

Sonic eventually came in to his own atop the canon. Not that Eggman was making it easy. Though he wasn't risking damage to the craft, the device was covered in electrical discharging panels, retracting spikes, and various other hazards that would catch any unaware hedgehog off guard.

The hedgehog was biding his time. Walking around something with such a small radius was one of the more perplexing tasks that Sonic's brain had had to handle recently. The craft had now passed the Sky Sanctuary Zone, and was passing further and further away from anything stable to stand on with every second. But with each step Sonic was gaining more confidence, and slowly but surely, the hedgehog learnt how to navigate on a circular jump.

Deciding he'd had enough time, Sonic began to race forwards. To gain any sort of serious momentum, Sonic had to run around the side of the craft several times, before making a sharp turn, and timing his jump so he would collide with Eggman. Sonic had absolutely no idea how well made this craft was, but in almost every single one of Eggman's machines, the cockpit was the weak point, and the area you'd strike if you wanted to destroy it.

Curving through the air at speeds faster than the canon was capable of, Sonic tore through the sky and landed straight into the middle of where the cockpit sat. The forcefield had taken the brunt of the damage, keeping Eggman safe from the hedgehog, but statistical relays made it quite clear that some damage had been done.

"Very good hedgehog," Eggman relented, "Now lets see how well you handle this," he goaded, as parts of the Eclipse Canon began to rotate. Whole panels lifted up and rotated around each other, as Sonic's job of navigating the device had become trickier. Eggman drew out the missile launchers, a sudden plan formulating in his mind.

Sonic kept moving. The attack had propelled him to near the bottom of the canon, potentially the last place he wanted to be. Jumping over some of the platforms, he began again to run around, the only sure fire way to sustain enough momentum to launch any kid of offensive manoeuvre. In the back of his mind Sonic was annoyed for it, but at the same time he loved the mindless action, and the instinctive adrenaline rush the fight was giving him.

The platforms had begun to get in the way. Eggman had them spinning erratically, and between dodging the random spikes and electricity, navigating the platforms was trickier. On more than one occasion Sonic had to sacrifice all the run-up he had put in just to avoid taking a severe injury. Nevertheless, the hedgehog kept going, and eventually made it to a good speed. He was near the top of the canon, and was ready to strike Eggman.

Sonic leapt high into the air, his body curled tightly. He aimed square for Eggman, intending to give the scientist a shock. The jump was near flawless, and Sonic somersaulted through the air, slamming down hard on the target. As he bounced off, he heard the shield crackle away. As sonic landed, he saw two puffs of black smoke trailing from what was the top of the craft. Sonic smirked, waiting to hear what Eggman would have to say about it.

"System's armed," Eggman laughed, "Now the real fight can begin hedgehog."

Platforms began to spread outwards all across the canon. They sped round the device faster, following no clear pattern. As one passed overhead, Sonic finally realised just why they were being separated.

"Solar panels," the hedgehog said aloud. Sonic realised this was how Eggman had been charging the canon, and how he could find enough energy to fire it from this high an altitude.

"Close," replied Eggman, "But they're channelling the energy of the Earth, not the Sun. Only the Earth's the biggest power source known, so just think how much power is flowing through the canon."

Sonic watched as the panels came further and further away. The core of the canon was becoming exposed, and Sonic could see it just glowing with Chaos energy. As the panel he was stood on moved further out, he could see Eggman undock from the device, taking with him two pairs of the missile launchers.

"I'm afraid to say Sonic," Eggman gloated loudly, "This is the end of the line for you. I have the Sol Emerald, and the devices required to destroy them. Meanwhile you stand there defenceless on an ancient canon that's honestly more likely to self destruct than destroy the world.

"It's your choice Sonic, surrender, and allow me to reshape reality one last time in my image, or be destroyed by my missiles, or the canon."


	43. Large Charge

_It had been another trick. I should've realised I was now left stood on what was essentially a gigantic bomb, at the mercy of Eggman. I decided I'd go out fighting. After everything I had been put through, I wasn't going to go easy, and just let Eggman have his way. It did dawn on me that Eggman now intended to kill me, something he wasn't willing to do earlier, and I had a suspicion that I'd served my role in helping Eggman find the Master Emerald. I remember being more annoyed with Shadow than Eggman. I knew what Eggman had to gain from all the double crossing and deception, but for all Shadow had done in this, I couldn't help but wonder just what his motive was._

A large volley of missiles flew past Sonic. The hedgehog had leapt off the panel at the last second, as the first missile hit it in one of the corners, sending it flying away from the canons core, far enough for the canon's gravitational pull to no longer affect it. The rest the missiles missed the target, several skimming over other panels, with others colliding squarely into the canon. The canon was unfazed by the damage, protected by all the Chaos energy it had absorbed, but the loose panels that had left the orbit of the Eclipse Canon floated like feathers to the ground.

Eggman was flying back and forth, persistently tormenting Sonic between rounds of missiles. All he had to do now was wait for the countdown on his screen to reach zero, and then he would finally get his own way, a fact he was all to diligent about reminding Sonic.

Sonic meanwhile was trying to find a way to get higher. Eggman had been mocking the hedgehog, flying just in range, only to pull away before Sonic could actually attack. The eclipse canon itself had now been rendered harmless, without Eggman to control them, the spikes and other assorted traps were no longer functioning, and the only threat remaining was low flying platforms, and the potential for the device to fire or explode.

The hedgehog figured it was essential to ascend as high as he could. Working his way up the platforms, Sonic forgot about aiming for Eggman, and just planned to get to the furthest out platform possible. As the platforms weaved in and out of each other, Sonic did the best he could to stay on top, jumping off occasionally to avoid missiles. As another wave blasted there way past, an idea came to Sonic. Abandoning his former plan, the blue hedgehog returned his focus to staying under Eggman. Landing on yet another platform, Sonic ran to one of the corners, and waited.

As expected another barrage of missiles headed for the hedgehog. Sonic stood patiently on the corner waiting as they drew closer until the last possible moment. As a few wide shots flew past, Sonic took his chances, and ran for the other corner. Just as he made it to the edge, one of the missiles collided with where he was stood, tilting the platform, and ricocheting the blue hedgehog straight towards Eggman.

The scientist couldn't move out of the way quick enough, and Sonic sailed upwards, only just grabbing hold of the wing of the Egg mobile. The hedgehog pulled himself up, and met the glare of doctor Eggman. Smiling, he reached inside the cockpit, and gripped tightly on the last of the Sol Emeralds. Eggman could only watch as Sonic leapt out with it, a smile across Sonic's face.

The hedgehog landed straight back onto the Eclipse Canon, "Ha!" he laughed, "I have the last emerald now Eggman! This is over!"

"Aren;t you forgetting something Sonic?" Eggman asked rhetorically, "You need one of these two devices to destroy it," the scientist replied, as he lifted up both the ROSC and the NOCC into view, and casually tossed them to the ground bellow.

Sonic kept smiling, "You've forgotten the obvious again," he replied, knowing full well he was about to do something stupider than he had ever done before. Sonic raced down towards the bottom of the canon, the emerald clutched tightly in his grip. He looked up at Eggman as he held the emerald high above the canon's core, "This canon's charged with Chaos energy, more than enough to destroy the Master Emerald itself. It could certainly destroy the last Sol Emerald and bring back Dawn."

"You fool Sonic!" Eggman panicked, "Destroy the last emerald, and everything is ruined. You won't get Dawn back, you'll just kill us all!"

"Oh well," Sonic said casually, as he threw the emerald as hard as he could into the canons core. Almost immediately the canon began to react violently. The blue hedgehog made his way away from the canon calmly, more eager to get a good look at Eggman's face.

As the canon began to shake and growl wildly with the chaotic reaction going on inside it, Sonic could see Eggman visibly panicked. He was desperately calling out to get a rocket away from the canon. Sonic didn't say anything, he just watched, keeping one eye on the canon and waiting for the inevitable.

The Eclipse canon began to glow bright purple. The sound of grinding gears filled the sky as the machine vibrated violently. It lurched in the sky, beginning a slow decent as it's propulsion systems failed. It began a slow decent, with a thick orange smoke ploughing out of it, filling the sky with a toxic smelling fumes.

A massive explosion filled the sky, as a wave of Chaos energy blasted over everything it touched. each of the platforms began to move violently before they were all expelled away from the weapon. Amidst the platforms, Sonic navigated over to Eggman, a relaxed smile on Sonic's face as he looked at Eggman. The scientist turned to Sonic angry, it was obvious that this was not something Eggman had planned a contingency for.

"Oh relax Eggman," Sonic smiled, "We'll all come out of this fine."

Sonic began to watch calmly as everything around him began to crumble apart and dissolve into nothingness. Sonic relaxed, everything was finally over. At last, Sonic's mind had settled, and he had finally accepted the world as it was.


	44. Disintergrate Evaporate

_I knew from the second I had done it, that it was what I truly wanted to do. Whether or not it was the right thing to do I wouldn't receive an answer for, but I knew it was necessary, and I wouldn't have hesitated to do it a second time. I'm just glad things worked out how they did, it was, in hindsight, quite a gamble after all. Not that I really cared at that point, I must admit, it didn't matter, nothing I had done had ultimately mattered_

Sonic felt his body getting lighter. The world shattered bellow him, and the sudden effect of a lack of gravity was immediately obvious. As he felt himself lifting free of the ground bellow him, he watched as the brightness died down. He looked bellow, the island was crumbling beneath him. Everyone else around him was looking panicked, but Sonic just smiled calmly.

Large chunks of rock rushed past, forced outwards and away from the ground bellow. Sonic watched as one by one his friends were hit with the debris, and knocked flying out of sight. He heard there pain, and smiled, ignoring them. Everything had become mellow to him, even as what looked like Amy's head floated past, unattached to her body.

All Sonic could focus on was his new-found sense of relief. It was over. He knew this, the ordeal he'd endured, the confusion, and all that nonsense about the Servers and the Monsters was over. In it's place a sense of understanding, and a feeling of fulfilment. The hedgehog smiled happily, content to watch pieces of the world go floating by at colossal speeds.

Eggman was angry. Sonic could see that. The blue hedgehog watched intently as the side plating on his ship began to give way and buckle. Sonic looked to the doctor and knew what he had to do. Dodging a chunk of airborne rock, Sonic forced himself towards the scientist.

"You shouldn't be angry," Sonic said calmly, "After all, what was it you said, 'nothing we do has any consequence at all here'?"

Eggman didn't reply, he was too focused on trying to survive. He couldn't have possibly foreseen such an action from Sonic, Using the Eclipse Canon was a large gambit on Eggman's part that had completely failed. The doctor tapped at his command console furiously, and the missiles launchers were cast off to fall into the void of nothingness bellow. They crumbled apart as they fell, dissolving quickly and effortlessly. A rocket shot into view, and Eggman headed for it at full speed, merging with it. Sonic watched the complicated docking features, and simply shrugged as Eggman's rocket headed for the Death Egg.

"Sonic," Dawn's voice beckoned out. She had shed the last of her solid form now, and was a pure ghost. Sonic watched as the debris from the world bellow passed harmlessly through her. "Why did you do it? We could've been happy together."

"We will be," Sonic replied, "In the true reality, how things are supposed to be." Sonic watched intently. He could see Dawn's form beginning to dissolve in front of him. It felt right to him.

"But Sonic," Dawn paused, feeling her form collapsing faster, "I'm no-…" She didn't finish her sentence, as the dissolving effect caught up with her and she faded away into total nothingness.

Sonic watched as everything disappeared. The chunks of land bellow him lingered slowly and lazily bobbed up and down as they faded out of existence, the living creatures bellow ran around panicked until they too became nothing more than hazy memories. Sonic himself felt his body starting to dissolve. First it was the tips of his feet, then not long after his fingers felt the same. It didn't feel like they were missing, just that Sonic couldn't register his body as entirely there any more.

The sensation shot up his arms and legs and across his torso. The concept of time was but a fleeting memory in this state, and Sonic had no idea if this process had been completed in several seconds or millions of years. All he knew now was that he was the last piece of existence, even Eggman's escape had failed.

Soon the hedgehog was nothing more than a head. Sonic felt the disappearing sensation encompassing his spines, and working it's way closer to his brain. Normally Sonic would've panicked slightly at the idea of his brain being eaten away, but he knew deep down this was fine and let himself go. As he felt the last of his body slip away, he closed his eyes, and accepted the feeling of nothingness that overcame him.

"Why did you do it Prime Server?" a voice beckoned out. No reply came, and no reply ever would


	45. Nothing Bluffing

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_"I forgive you..."_

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_"Please, Sonic, wake up!"_

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_"I love you..."_


	46. Rooftop Pitstop

_My head ached. I came into realisation I was conscious as easily as waking up. It wasn't so much that I came back into existence, but that I had always existed, and existence felt natural. But my mind was a blur. In my mind there were three thoughts, the first that I had done the right thing, even if I couldn't remember what it was, the second that I really needed to rest, and the third was that I should find Shadow._

"I didn't think it would be long before you came to find me," the black hedgehog relented to Sonic, "But then I too have sought answers from strange places."

"I'm not too sure why," Sonic admitted, "But I get the feeling you know something I don't."

"Tell me," Shadow replied, "What _do_ you last remember?"

Sonic thought back as far as his brain would allow him. His memories were sketchy and hazy. He still knew who he was, who Shadow was, and that he'd recently beaten Robotnik, but the events of the last few months were blurred.

"I think I'd stopped Robotnik's machines," the blue hedgehog eventually answered.

"Was there anyone else there when you did?"

"I think so," Sonic replied, "But I can't remember who."

Shadow turned his back to the hedgehog, and looked out to the city bellow him. The pair had met atop one of the tallest skyscrapers on the outskirts of what was once the Chemical Plant Zone, on Westside Island. From here they could see most of the Emerald Hill, and as far out as the entrance to the Mystic Cave Zone.

"That's why you've come here," Shadow answered, as he looked down at the world beneath his feet, "You want the answers that you know I have."

Sonic said nothing, as he continued to sit on the skyscrapers guard rail. He'd woken up that afternoon with a large gap in his memory, and feeling like something very important was missing. His instincts had told him to ask Shadow, and the black hedgehog seemed only too aware of what had happened.

"You've always been eager for the answers," Shadow said, looking back at Sonic, "Alright, I'll tell you. I owe you that much."

"Then spill," Sonic replied, eager to hear what Shadow had to say, "What do you know?"

"Everything's fine. The world is exactly how it should be, before all of this began. Everyone is back to there old selves, fulfilling there old roles. Even Westside Island is back as it should be."

Though he didn't understand what Shadow was getting at, Sonic was oddly relieved to learn it, "But what happened? Why is my memory blank?"

"It's not just you Sonic," Shadow replied nonchalantly, "It's everyone. They're all the same, none of them remember any of it. But there's a key difference between you and them Sonic..."

"What is it?" Sonic interrupted.

"They're oblivious," Shadow replied, his back once again to Sonic, as he looked at the people on the street bellow, "Unlike you, they're not even aware what they've had or what they've lost. To them life has gone on as normal, and they haven't noticed the changes as we have. You on the other hand, know you've forgotten something, you just don't know what."

"Then what have I forgotten?" Sonic shouted. He hated Shadow's endless ability to talk in riddles.

"A lot," Shadow replied, "For one just how happy you were."

"How happy I was?" Sonic asked, his mind desperately trying to fill in the gap in his mind.

"Everyone was," Shadow scorned, "Every last person was happy, and had everything they wanted. On no less than six occasions everyone was given a chance to be as happy as they ever could be. It was all anyone wanted, but you just kept picking at it."

"If you just could've been contented," Shadow continued, "Or maybe even allowed yourself to just accept the way things had become, we could've all had everything."

"I don't even know what you're on about Shadow," Sonic replied, as he felt the wind blow past his ears. He got up, and began pacing, listening intently to Shadows comments.

"You won't," Shadow replied, "Not for a while yet anyway."

"Just tell me Shadow!" Sonic yelled, "I'm fed up of all the cryptical nonsense."

"Heh," Shadow smirked, "That makes sense considering," The black hedgehog looked to Sonic, and noted that the blue hedgehog was reaching breaking point, "Just know this, everything you can't fully remember, all the bits that are floating around in your mind that don't quite fit. It all happened. Whenever you find yourself wondering when you did something that a small part of your brain can't place, it was during the gap in your memories."

"But I don't remember anything," Sonic replied.

"You might one day," Shadow replied, "maybe sooner than you think. It's up to you to piece it all together, and figure out exactly what happened, if you can."

"Can't you help me at all?" Sonic asked, pretty sure he could guess the answer.

"I'd rather forget," Shadow replied sombrely, "There are some things in this world nobody wants to lose, and those are the things you treasure. But why waste time remembering the things that never happened?"

Sonic didn't answer. He could see on Shadow's face that there was more here than Shadow wanted to share, but Sonic knew Shadow was the only one who knew anything beyond himself. Neither hedgehog made eye contact, both feeling an emptiness that they didn't want to share, and would ultimately handle very differently.

"If you do piece it together," Shadow said, ending the silence, "You should probably know why I did what I did."

"What did you do?" Sonic asked, pretty sure he knew Shadow wouldn't give him an answer.

"I did it for her," Shadow replied, "For one brief moment, I had fulfilled my promise to Maria. I won't forget that you ended that, faker," Shadow finished, referring to Sonic.

Sonic realised how big a deal this was to Shadow, "I'm sorry. I still don't know what I did, but I'm sorry."

"Forget it," Shadow bluntly replied, "I can understand why you did it, even if I wouldn't've done it myself," Shadow finished, as he readied himself to leave Sonic where he was, "I need to get going now anyway. Got things I need to take care of with Omega."

"Shadow..." Sonic began.

"What?" Shadow said, giving Sonic one more minute of his time.

"Just... I'm sorry."

"Once again, forget it. You've lost more than you'll ever know." Shadow answered. He said his goodbyes to Sonic, and left him on the rooftop.

A sudden memory came to Sonic's mind. It was of himself, trying to run in Shadow's hover shoes. The blue hedgehog shook his head, thinking it was nonsense, before he remembered what Shadow had said about his memories. Piecing this together was going to take some time. There were a few things he'd need to check up on.


	47. Pending Ending

_That was that. I had done it. Everything was back to normal. Tails had just two tails and was my best friend, Knuckles was the last of the Echidna's, protector of the Master Emerald on the Floating Island, and nobody was none the wiser. Even I had forgotten almost everything about it, with just the faintest of memories lingering in my mind as if they were just a fictional story within my imagination. I had nothing to go on, and almost no memory of what had happened or why._

It was dark. Very dark. But yet still the light shone. It wasn't much light admittedly, but it was enough. The light of a trillion stars, each more than a billion light years away. It wasn't often that Sonic had taken the time to admire them, but today for some reason he thought he would just sit and watch. The moon hung low in the sky, just above the sea. It had risen over the horizon in the last hour, not that the blue hedgehog was aware of just how much time had passed.

"It is you," came an excited cry. Sonic didn't reply, continuing to gave across the sea at the horizon of stars before him.

"Hey Sonic," Amy continued, "Where you been? I've not seen you in ages."

Again, Sonic didn't answer, focusing his eyes firmly forwards, and not towards Amy.

The pink hedgehog was starting to get annoyed now. She didn't like being ignored, least of all by the man she would, if she got her way, one day marry. "Sonic, I'm talking to you,"

"Oh," Sonic mumbled, "Sorry Amy." he replied quietly.

"What, no sprinting off, no 'get away from me'?" Amy asked rhetorically.

"Not now," Sonic replied calmly, before focusing back on the sea.

"What's up?" Amy asked. She couldn't be too sure, as Sonic wasn't usually the one to show it, but she was partially convinced something was bothering him, "It's not that creep Eggman is it?"

"No, it's not Robuttnik," Sonic half smiled, before continuing, "I just can't help but feel I'm forgetting something?"

"like what?"

"Dunno"

"I'm sure it will come to you eventually Sonic," Amy continued optimistically.

Sonic didn't reply, but he continued staring. It didn't bother him too much, whatever it was, but there was something in the back his mind that said it was important. Sonic tried to ignore it, and pretended to listen as Amy continued talking.

Amy sat down next to Sonic on the cliff edge. He didn't budge, he didn't feel as though he should now, even though he knew Amy would misinterpret this simple kindness later on. Sonic pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind, along with the thing he couldn't remember. Tomorrow he would go back to his usual ways, but there was something about today that was making him feel sombre. All Sonic wanted to do was spend tonight watching the world go by, rather than his usual approach of going by the world. Sonic had seen a lot of the world, but he'd never given any of it any real thought before.

The two hedgehogs sat for several hours, neither saying much, Amy was soaking up simply being in Sonic's company, and being honest with himself, Sonic felt like he needed the company. The pair sat staring out at the sea from one of the cliff edges of the Emerald Hill Zone, just gazing out into the depths of space.

"Do you ever stop and think," Sonic said slowly, "That maybe there's alternate realities where things are different for everyone?"

"How d'ya mean?"

"like maybe Tails can't fly, or there's no Chaos Emeralds, or maybe you used a crossbow?"

"I've no idea how I'd even get a crossbow Sonic," Amy laughed, "let alone know how to use one."

"You get what I mean though, right?"

"Yeah, and I don't see why not," Amy answered, before adding, "I'm probably your girlfriend in all of those too. I have to be."

"Maybe in a few," Sonic replied, "but definitely not all."

"How can you be sure?" Amy asked, slightly offended by the notion that she and Sonic weren't destined to be.

Sonic didn't answer, but he didn't like the idea he was with Amy in any universe. He let it slide now, he was too tired, for some reason it had felt like it had been a long day for him, longer than normal. A small yawn escaped from his mouth.

"Are you tired Sonic?" Amy asked.

"I'll be fine," Sonic replied, as a bizarre looking object began to sail over the horizon. As it got closer, Sonic recognised it as that of the Floating Island. Sonic wondered about Knuckles for a moment, and shook his head confused, as several unusual images filled his mind. Sonic yawned again, and Amy followed suit soon after.

"You must be tired," Amy said authoritatively, "You keep yawning," she said, herself again yawning.

"We both must be," Sonic replied.

Amy instinctively looked at her watch, "I'm not surprised," she said, "it's nearly five. I'd better get going, I promised Cream I'd spend the morning with her, and if I don't get any sleep soon, I'll fall asleep shopping!" Amy continued. With that she got up, "What about you?"

"I think I'm going to stay here for a bit longer," the hedgehog replied, "it'll be sunrise soon, and I've always loved dawn."

As Amy walked off to slumber, the thought finally came to the forefront of Sonic's mind. He did indeed love Dawn…

* * *

Well, that's the end of Unreality. If you read this far in, let me know what your thoughts are. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it (even if it did take two years to finish).

Ever wondered how else it could've ended though? Don't think too hard, as the alternate possible endings will be revealed in _"It Could've Been So Different...", _coming shortly.


End file.
